Reason in Madness
by Scribbler
Summary: Knuckles was fated to be Guardian of the Chaos Emerald since he was born. Then he came down from Angel Island to see the devastation wrought by war between Human and Mobian, and an interlude with a Freedom Fighter made him question fate. Bunnie/Knuckles
1. A Love Story in Fifty Sentences

**Disclaimer: **Well, ah do disclaim.

**Continuity: **Mostly SatAM, some Archie Comics, with a little bit of the Sega games thrown in. It's just a great big hodgepodge of universes, really.

**A/N: **Originally written for the _1sentence_ challenge on LiveJournal, though I totally blame it on Orin, who drew two gorgeous pieces of Bunnie/Knuckles fanart that just begged to have fic written for them. Uses _Theme Set Alpha_ as a base, for those who know what that means and are even vaguely interested.

**NB:** These are not a list, nor are they a non-story. They are fifty thematic parts of a single story collected in one document.

**Feedback: **Reviews welcomed like prodigal children.

* * *

**_A Love Story in Fifty Sentences_**

© Scribbler, February 2006.

* * *

**#42 – Clouds**

The first time he meets her, Knuckles thinks she's a beast with her head completely in the clouds – later he berates himself for not realising she's seen more of life than he has, the evidence as plain as her arm and legs.

**#11 – Name**

She actually _giggles _after introductions, when he incredulously repeats her name, and says, "Yeah, it ain't exactly an original handle for a gal like me, is it?"

**#32 – Confusion**

She balances coyness and exuberance as if with a spirit gage, and Knuckles, unused to the ways of females who are _not _Princess Sally – practical, serious, kind but rarely playful – has absolutely no idea how to act around her.

**#01 – Comfort**

"Don't worry about it, you'll get used to everyone in no time," Sally comforts as he walks dazedly beside her towards her work hut – she has two huts, of course, to keep her commander role and her real self separate – but Knuckles isn't sure he'll ever get used to such an active place as Knothole after Angel Island.

**#20 – Freedom**

Before Sally tempted him to come down to earth to help their cause, Knuckles thought the Freedom Fighters' mission wasn't worth the precious time of a Guardian, but after meeting Bunnie and seeing what obvious differences Robotnik has wrought in _her _life, he starts to think that maybe he shouldn't have stayed so long in the sky.

**#43 – Sky**

"You really live up there in the _sky_," Bunnie repeats, not quite making it a question and pointing with her flesh hand, as if he might have forgotten where the sky is – obviously Sally was brief with the details when she told her troops about him.

**#41 – Completion**

He rises before the sun, as he does every day, and goes for a brisk walk before the rest of Knothole wakes, but is surprised to find Bunnie near the bridge, running through _kata_ so intensely that she doesn't even notice he's there until she's completed the last one.

**#12 – Sensual**

She's a paradox; despite the metal she gives off innocent vibes (teasing, flighty, like she never really grew up) but every soft curve is just as dangerous in some way – some more than others.

**#48 – Waves**

He is loath to admit it, but she makes him feel strange – like when he was consulting with Sally over maps of the far-flung areas he's floated over on the Island, and she came in with a basket of snacks from Rosie's kitchen, and suddenly his stomach felt twisty, like waves on a choppy sea.

**#21 – Life**

He never thought of his life as empty before – he has a purpose, and a damn fine one at that – but somehow the life _she _leads seems so much more fulfilling, even when all she's doing is picking lettuce for Rosie for a nothing-special supper before a raid because the old chipmunk's arthritis is bad.

**#10 – Ears**

Her ears are the most expressive part of her – though she can disguise her expression with a smile and a shrug, they flick backwards with disappointment when he says he has to go back to Angel Island.

**#06 – Rain**

It rains the first night he spends back home, and he sits in the mouth of a cave, thinking about her little hut with its cosy fire and mismatching armchairs.

**#25 – Devotion**

Knuckles decides he won't see her again – she sparks too many odd feelings in him, and he'd much rather devote himself to his calling than concern himself with that sort of thing.

**#39 – Smile**

Bunnie has several different smiles, both public and private, but the smile she gives when she opens the door of her hut is surprised – he wasn't due to come down again for at _least _another few weeks, and they both know it, just as they know without saying that he didn't go to Sally's hut first.

**#15 – Touch**

The first time he touches Bunnie's metal is when she trips and falls into his arms, heavier than he expected, making him whuff with the effort of keeping her upright and making her flush and flee before he can comprehend what he's done wrong.

**#05 – Potatoes**

Frowning, Sally looks up from where she's digging weeds out of the potatoes and murmurs carefully, "Bunnie is … she acts like she doesn't care, but she's actually quite sensitive about being … different."

**#04 – Pain**

Though he's not very good at reading emotions, there's embarrassment and pain in her eyes when he finds her by the riverbank, just staring at the water; he doesn't have to say anything, he just sits down and they watch together, apologising and accepting the apology without speaking a word.

**#22 – Jealousy**

He watches Bunnie with her childhood friend, Antoine, and though the coyote clearly has designs on Princess Sally's heart, Knuckles realises that the tight feeling in the pit of his belly is something he's never felt before – he's _jealous._

**#09 – Telephone**

Bunnie stores things in her hut like trophies, so you can barely turn your head without spotting a piece of broken pottery, a soot-stained doll she couldn't scrub completely clean, tattered silk ribbons, even an old telephone – scrap and salvage from old missions, she calls them, but Knuckles wonders whether she's trying to keep hold of a time when she didn't have to worry about rusting.

**#24 – Taste**

She shoves him backwards into a chair with her flesh hand when she learns he's never tasted chocolate before – he eats what grows on the Island, nothing more or less – and bustles about her small kitchen, throwing things into a mixing bowl to make chocolate and oat biscuits like when she was a kit.

**#19 – Wind**

That night a storm blows in, the tarpaulin over the equipment Rotor couldn't fit in his workshop comes loose and it's every beast on deck to help put things right; Bunnie doesn't even hesitate in climbing right up there where the metal stake whips about dangerously in the wind, stabbing at anyone who comes close, and Knuckles realises he's been holding his breath like some idiotic spectator only when she comes down again.

**#16 – Weakness**

He curses his own weakness at getting attached to someone like her when he's been marked as the Guardian of the Chaos Emerald since he was born, with all the isolation and dignity that entails.

**#03 – Soft**

The glow from her windows is soft and warm, but he still hesitates when she appears and asks if he'd like to dang well come inside instead of standing out in the cold all night.

**#29 – Melody**

She sits by the fire, playing a funny little reed instrument he's never heard of before (unexpectedly well, considering her mismatching hands), and Knuckles nods off to sleep in the other armchair with an empty mug on his chest, tired and vaguely surprised he could ever feel so content without the Emerald featuring into it somewhere.

**#46 – Sun**

The sun is just setting when he climbs aboard Dulcy and indulges in some uncharacteristic recklessness that makes Bunnie stare up at him and say, "But I thought non-Guardian folk weren't welcome up on that there hunk of rock."

**#38 – Gift**

He rehearses, but the first time she comes to Angel Island he greets her with no words and a small red flower he found growing on the furthest part of the eastern edge, near his Thinking Rock.

**#31 – Home**

"Your home's mighty beautiful," she says, the angle of her ears telling him she's being sincere, and he swells with pride.

**#08 – Happiness**

When she asks how he knows Princess Sally, Knuckles falls for a moment into a memory of watching a pod bearing the House of Acorn insignia touch down atop Green Hill, and a small, petulant girl in a tiara climb out – and he realises with some consternation that it's one the few truly happy memories he _has_.

**#40 – Innocence**

He tells her about his father, the Guardian before him, who 'went away' when he was small, and she tells him of her family; her own father, who brought her to court with him as a special treat right before Robotnik took over, her mother and sisters, trapped back in the south where she's heard nothing of them since the coup, and they don't say it but they mourn each other's lost innocence.

**#33 – Fear**

His clawed hands always feel like weapons, and he fears to touch her with them; her robot parts clank as she moves, and she fears she'll never again be touched intentionally by another creature without pity or revulsion behind their eyes.

**#23 – Hands**

Bunnie is surprisingly gentle when she disregards his claws, picks up his hands, holds onto one and places the other on her cheek, murmuring, "See, sugar, I'm like fake fruit – I don't bruise easy."

**#34 - Lightning/Thunder**

The Chaos Emerald has always been more alive to him than to anyone else – other beasts just can't _see_ the threads that stretch away from it to all corners of Mobius – but it's been known to react badly when it feels threatened, so when he shows Bunnie into the chamber and she isn't hit by lightning, Knuckles breathes a small sigh of relief.

**#30 – Star**

"It's like … like a star fell right outta the sky," she breathes, green eyes nearly as huge as the Emerald itself; Knuckles isn't sure he likes the analogy, but he shrugs and mutters something appropriate anyway.

**#36 – Market**

"I always loved market day back home," she informs him, dabbling her flesh fingers in the stream just past Green Hill, "I loved the noise an' the life of it all, but there's times peace an' quiet does a body good."

**#26 – Forever**

"My stars, I reckon I could stay in a place like this forever," she murmurs sleepily, and Knuckles is suddenly seized by the wish to ask why she can't, but he's still too new at this and instead looks at the spectacular sunset, so much clearer up here than on the ground.

**#18 – Speed**

Sonic's speed has always been amazing, but when he arrives back at Knothole with Bunnie slumped in his arms, Knuckles almost matches it in his mad dash to reach them first.

**#27 – Blood**

There's so much blood, but it's not red; instead it's a sickly maroon, like old meat, and when Knuckles asks Sally what that means she distractedly tells him that it's the nanites in Bunnie's system, trying to keep her alive.

**#28 – Sickness**

Bunnie is unconscious for days, during which Knuckles is barely allowed to see her and her hut starts to reek of sickness and desperation.

**#13 – Death**

For a while he really thinks she's going to die, and while death is no stranger it hurts somewhere deep in his chest to think that this particular life can be snuffed out just as easily as anybody else's.

**#35 – Bonds**

He's been staying in one of the unused huts, neglecting his Guardian duties, but he is beginning to appreciate that there are some things that bind beasts just as forcefully as duty.

**#37 – Technology**

When she comes to tell him everything will be okay, that the worst is over now, that Bunnie will live, Sally is holding Nicole so tight he thinks her finger joints might snap under the pressure, and he wants to prise them loose but he's still too uneasy of hurting fragile creatures like her to try.

**#49 – Hair**

Bunnie's hair was always beautifully cared for; feathery hair like silk and flax, she brushed it every morning and evening without fail, but now it clings to her skull, a damp mass of knots and tangles as she sits up in bed and rasps, "_Told _you I'm like fake fruit."

**#17 – Tears **

Knuckles can't understand – he should be happy to see her, but suddenly all he wants to do his cry like he never let himself when he _did _lose his father.

**#07 – Chocolate**

"I, uh … I mi- … I brought you these," he says awkwardly, thrusting out the pewter dish of chocolate and oat biscuits he made according to an old recipe begged from Rosie – and though he's had to fend for himself for years, he's not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, so they're misshapen and lumpy in all the wrong places.

**#02 – Kiss**

"Uh, Sal, you gotta open the door if we're going in to see Bunnie," Sonic states, but Sally just shakes her head, keeps her hand behind her on the doorknob and mumbles something about privacy.

**#50 – Supernova**

Knothole explodes into sound when Bunnie finally emerges from her hut – a supernova of applause, whoops and greetings from those beasts who somehow never got around to visiting the girl who was nearly killed maintaining their freedom, and which Knuckles studiously ignores as he follows her out the door.

**#14 – Sex**

"You gotta know, I … I can't ever have kits," Bunnie says when they're alone, gesturing at herself, sunlight glinting off her roboticised limbs, but Knuckles just shakes his head, smiles a little and pulls her to him.

**#47 – Moon**

The moon is huge in the sky when someone knocks on his hut door – _his _hut now, decorated to suit him, even though he still doesn't live in Knothole – and Knuckles greets Sonic by placing on glove on either side of the frame.

**#45 – Hell**

"Bunnie's a pal," Sonic says, quills up – always confrontation with him, always competitiveness, like he sees Knuckles as some sort of threat to his status as Knothole's protector – "and she's been through even more hell than the rest of us, but she's … she trusts easily, so if you hurt her …" he leaves the sentence hanging.

**#44 – Heaven**

Knuckles considers his life before and after first coming to Knothole, and though neither version can be called heavenly, he decides he genuinely wouldn't want to go back to being alone, so he simply nods at Sonic and wordlessly closes his door.

* * *

**FINIS.**

* * *


	2. Apron Strings

**Disclaimer – **Mine? You kidding?

**A/N – **Written for Christa Winters as part of the Drabble Challenge (which seemed to go horribly, horribly wrong, as most of my replies weren't, actually, drabbles). Her request: _Bunnie/Knux. What I want? Fluffage, massive fluffage. _And it made sense to use a universe I'd already created, so ... here we are.

* * *

_**Apron Strings**_

© Scribbler, April 2006.

* * *

Sonic threw questions at Bunnie with the speed of raindrops hitting the ground in a thunderstorm. "Got everything? Want a hand? Can I carry that? Can't you stay a little longer? You'll come back often, right?"

"I'm fine, Sugar-hog." Bunnie hoisted her knapsack onto her back as she walked. Dulcy had already taken the majority of her things to Angel Island, though Rotor promised that he'd have his experimental matter transporters up and running 'before they knew it', and he was sure the beta model wouldn't incinerate what it transported, so if she ever wanted to come back in a hurry…

Though Bunnie knew the other Freedom Fighters didn't think she was making a mistake (well, apart from Sonic, that was), she also knew that they were worried about her decision. Knothole absorbed creatures like a sponge, forever swelling with new huts, new homes, new members. She was the first to leave it of her own volition.

Everyone was waiting in the meadow. They'd decided not to advertise Bunnie's departure to the non-Freedom Fighter residents. It'd been her idea – she hated goodbyes, and this was going to be hard enough as it was. Seeing Antoine rush towards her, she felt the second lump of the day rise in her throat – the first having been fought down when she closed the door onher hut; the place she use to share with Sally when they were lost little kits mewling for their parents and the Mobotropolis they used to know.

"Bunnie," Antoine said, clasping her hand. She made sure it was the flesh one. Old habits died hard. "Ah, I am not being goodly with farewells."

"It's okay, Sugar-twan."

"You will not be forgetting us?"

"Landsakes, it ain't like I'm leavin' forever. I'll still be workin' with y'all."

"We know," said Rotor as he approached, "but it just won't be the same. You know." Without pause or permission he embraced her, disregarding her shock and the fact that he was touching her metal arm.

"Yeah. Reckon I do," Bunnie murmured over his shoulder.

As predicted, the goodbyes were hard. Tails cried a little, until Sonic told him to buck up, and Knuckles rolled his eyes. He wasn't good at lavish shows of emotion, as she'd learned, but this was still hard for him, ifin a different way than it was for her. He was convinced Knothole would now hate him for stealing her away, to which she'd told him that she was a modern girl with a mind of her own, and she'd thank everyone to remember that. She wasn't some damsel, and was quite capable of making her own decisions.

And mistakes, if it came to that, but she was sure (hopeful) it wouldn't. She loved Knuckles, deeply and resoundingly. She loved him like she'd never loved any other beast, and was quite willing to do this - to start a new life with him, one that hinged on their own terms and nobody else's.

Still, he and Sonic attempted to out-glare each other throughout all the hugging and tearful leave-taking.

"You're sure you'll be all right?" Sally's blue eyes were serious. She looked older than Bunnie could ever remember seeing her.

"Sure I'm sure. But if I ain't, I know where to holler. Y'all ain't getting' rid of me _that_ easy."

Sally's smile was small and wan, but it was still a smile.

"Ready to go?" Knuckles asked. He was blinking a lot, evidently having dried out his eyes in his contest with Sonic, who was also blinking rapidly.

"As I'll ever be." Bunnie climbed aboard Dulcy and gave him a hand up, careful not to use too much force and accidentally fling him right over the other side of the dragon's back, as she'd done in earlier days. When they were comfortably seated, she patted between Dulcy's shoulder blades in a practised signal. "All present an' correct, captain."

Dulcy flexed her wings, but said nothing. She'd get a private goodbye once they were landed (and had recovered from the landing).

The Freedom Fighters ran beside them, and then carried on running, waving frantically as they lifted off. Dulcy circled a few times, allowing Bunnie to wave her good arm sore. Then they powered away towards the horizon.

Bunnie brushed a stray tear from her cheek. Before she put her hand down, Knuckles reached around her to squeeze it. "This is hard for you." He said it like he was trying to understand, even though he couldn't really. He'd lived alone for most of his life.

"Yeah. But it's worth it."

She felt his smile radiating into the back of her neck, and it dissolved the lump in her throat completely.

* * *

**FINIS.**

* * *


	3. The Circle Opens

**A/N: **I've been writing this for some time now. While I originally intended _A Love Story in Fifty Sentences_ to be a standalone fic, _Apron Strings_ was added as a request. I thought the whole thing was finished with those two, but apparently my back brain had other ideas. What follows from here on in was kind of an accident, really; written when I was worried about my grandmother and needed to take myself to another place. And you can't get much more distant than Mobius, right? Therefore, _ALSiFS_ and _Apron Strings_ can be considered a sort of prologue to the main action, which is a much more sprawling story than those tow perhaps promised. The whole lot is henceforth to be known under the umbrella of _Reason in Madness_. I hope you enjoy it enough to give some feedback. Thank you.

* * *

_**Reason in Madness**_

© Scribbler March/May 2007

* * *

_There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.__** - Friedrich Nietzsche**_

_**

* * *

**_

**1. The Circle Opens**

* * *

Emptied to essentials, the sitting room had a lobotomised look, as though all personality had been surgically removed. Stripped of their accessories, Bunnie's florid, oversized furniture seemed self-consciously large.

It'd been a whole month, and still nobody had moved into the hut.

Sally stood next to the armchair and rested her hand on its back. It was tall, with high armrests and cushions perfect for sinking into. If a beast sat in it they could lean backwards comfortably. She'd fallen asleep in it many times before, especially on Winter evenings after a hard day's toil when her own hut seemed cold and uninviting. Bunnie used to creep around, preposterously noiseless, and cover her with a blanket rather than wake her.

Sally sighed, and then turned when a floorboard creaked behind her. She wasn't surprised to see Sonic, frozen with one foot raised.

He grinned sheepishly at her.

"Is something the matter?" Sally asked, her thoughts interrupted. She ran a hand through her hair. It was growing out a little, and she wasn't sure whether to let it or take a pair of scissors to the back. The decision was something she would usually have discussed with Bunnie, who would've had a lot to say on the matter. When they were kits, it'd been Bunnie's dream to become a hairdresser when she grew up.

"I saw you come in here and I thought, y'know…" Sonic shrugged. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Eeeeh. Wrong answer." He folded his arms. "You've been majorly bummed ever since Bunnie left."

"So what if I am?" She sounded defensive, and made an effort to lower the timbre of her voice.

"Yo, chill, Sal. We've all been a bit down; I'm just worried about you, that's all."

Her irritation drained away like bathwater down the plughole. "Thanks. But I really am fine. Things just seem so … quiet without her around."

"You're telling me. Every time I see him, Tails asks when she's coming for a visit, or if he can go to the floating island. It's getting so I don't wanna go near the big guy in case he wants me to take him with me."

"But you haven't been either."

"Not the point, Sal."

Sally shook her head. It was obvious Sonic actually _did_ want to go visit the island, but, like her, was respecting Bunnie's right to privacy and her need for time to settle into her new home. It'd been a huge step for Bunnie to move out of Knothole – for everyone. Nobody had ever done it before except Uncle Chuck, and he hadn't really been a resident in the first place. Sally recalled the day Bunnie had clambered onto Dulcy's back and flown off, the rest of the Freedom Fighters running below until they were no more than a speck in the distance. Then they'd all come to a halt, and though they'd all had chores they'd made their way back to the village as a group, and spent the evening in Sally's hut drinking acorn tea and eating hot oat farls with oak cream and dewberry jam. An air of false jollity smothered them, as they laughed and joked and pointedly ignored the empty chair where Bunnie should've sat.

Since then, her absence had drawn the Freedom Fighters closer together, though they hadn't been on a proper mission into Robotropolis. Sally supposed she was unwilling to make plans that compensated for Bunnie's absence, but at the same time she didn't want to impose by asking her to come back yet.

Bunnie was Sally's best friend in a way that Sonic just couldn't be. They'd shared a dormitory as kits, and when their bodies went through the changes of growing up, each girl had taken comfort in knowing she wasn't the only one. With each of the Freedom Fighters, her friends, Sally could be a different part of herself. With Bunnie, she felt less like a leader and more like a teenager who should've been poring over magazines and choosing nail polish. She couldn't sit up doing _Sonic's_ hair when she needed to talk. So she _missed_ Bunnie unbearably.

Yet Sally was terribly aware of how much their war had affected Bunnie. She'd suffered, above all other Mobotropolis refugees, and her suffering continued even when they weren't hiding behind trash dumps or running from SWATbots. They'd all lost their families, but at least they'd kept _themselves_.It had always lurked under the surface, but especially in the last month Sally had brooded that no other Mobian she could think of had a personality or the fortitude to live partially roboticised and keep smiling the way Bunnie did.

So it was that Sally couldn't bring herself to suck Bunnie back into their fight so soon. Her mind was suffused with images of how Bunnie had looked at Knuckles's retreating back the day she left. It had been an expression so full of hope and caring that it was etched indelibly on Sally's memory, an obvious reminder of _why _Bunnie had chosen to go. Likewise, Knuckles's gentleness with her, so incongruous to what Sally knew of him, had also made an impact. Knuckles never treated Bunnie like she didn't need protecting, the way the Freedom Fighters sometimes unconsciously did. When someone could wrench an iron grate off its hinges without even breaking a sweat, even if you didn't mean to you assigned them a little more 'I don't need to worry about you' than you did for others.

Sally didn't want to risk that happiness in the face of all Bunnie had already endured – Knuckles, too. Though she'd been out of contact with him for years, she knew enough about his life as a Guardian to know that Bunnie's presence in his life was the best thing that could've happened to him. They complemented each other.

"Yo, Sal." Sonic waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Sal, come in Sal."

Sally startled. "Sonic!"

"What? You totally zoned out."

"I was thinking."

"I know. I heard the gears creak."

She swatted at him. _I bet Knuckles never says stuff like that to Bunnie._ "Thinking isn't exactly _your_ greatest asset."

"That's because you don't love me for my brain. You love me for my body." He rested his arms on his waist and canted his hips from side to side.

Sally snorted. She couldn't help it. Melancholy cut about as much ice as a soap hacksaw when Sonic was around. "You wish!"

"I don't need to wish. I know." More hip wiggling. Sally swatted at him again, but he dashed away, laughing. "C'mon, Sal. I told Rotor I'd meet him up at the water wheel, and I _know _how much you like bossing us around. He reckons we can light up two bulbs today."

"You're hopeless. You know full well the water wheel is already capable of powering an emergency medical pack."

"Yeah, but it takes, like, a million hours to charge the batteries for each one – and that's only when they river's high."

"Fourteen hours, actually," Sally corrected, but she had to concede about the river. Water levels had been low for the season recently, and if there hadn't been so much to do she would've made a point of finding out why. She pulled NICOLE off her boot and made a note to get to it later.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You're such a worrywart. It _could_ just be all the extra sun we've been getting."

"Yes, but it _could_ be something else, too. After what happened with Robotnik and the water supply last time, I'm not willing to take any chances."

"Hair-splitter."

"Sloth."

"Moi? A sloth?" Sonic put a hand to his chest. "Sal, I'm hurt. Do you know how slow sloths _are_?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Sally sighed and made for the door. "Let's see what Rotor wants, then."

Sonic grinned and trailed after her. "See, I knew it. You just can't resist a chance to boss us around."

"Idiot." But she was smiling as she said it.

* * *

Knuckles stood on the embankment with his eyes shut. The breeze was cool and sharp, and carried with it a faint salty tang redolent of the coast. It cleared his head, and he filled his lungs.

A week ago Angel Island had floated over a swath of fields recently devastated by Robotnik's forces, the creatures who worked them either captured or dead. Either way they were long gone, though their homes and livelihoods still smouldered. The stink of burning grain had lingered in his nose, and had seemed to follow him back to the island, so it felt good to finally be rid of it.

Last year Knuckles would not have even considered leaving the island to visit a bombsite like that. If he'd even noticed it at all, he would've sailed on past, reasoning that the fate of ordinary Mobians was no concern of his as long as the Chaos Emerald was safe. He wasn't cold; anyone who'd spent more than five minutes in his company could attest that. It was simply that he was devoted to his mission. Having spent the majority of his life being programmed about the importance of keeping the Emerald secret and safe, he'd come to view his calling as something almost holy, which drove him to walk a very fine line between dedication and ruthlessness. That he'd drawn back from that precipice was just one of the many differences wrought in his life since he'd met Bunnie Rabbot.

She'd insisted they go down to the village to see if they could help. They couldn't, and after searching fruitlessly for survivors she'd stood in the middle of the smashed main square until Knuckles tugged at her arm.

"This could be my home," she'd said softly, after flinching at the contact. "It ain't that different. Those poor beasts, taken away to the Roboticisor, or worse…"

They were too far north for it to actually be her home town, but Knuckles understood. Consequently it'd been his idea to bury the few pitiful bodies they found. This seemed to mollify Bunnie a little, though she'd still been sad and silent when they finally left. Afterwards she'd withdrawn into the caves and Knuckles, though vastly inexperienced in reading the signs of other creatures, recognised her need to be alone for a while.

Yet that had been a week ago. Bunnie's resilience amazed Knuckles. After a few hours brooding she'd emerged wearing her usual smile and said no more on the matter. They'd spent an enjoyable evening of her teaching him how to play bobstones and no mention of the village had been made since.

Now he stood on the embankment and contemplated how own preoccupation with the rows of burnt out houses. If he hadn't known better, he'd have said Bunnie didn't care about what they'd seen, but since it'd bothered _him _so much he _knew_ it'd bothered her too. She'd stamped down on her preoccupation with good cheer the same way he had with reticence.

Until Sally got back in contact with him, and he finally answered her requests to come to Knothole, Knuckles had been only vaguely aware of the details of Robotnik's rise to power. Initially he'd absorbed the information as one might absorb a history textbook. Now, however, he found himself growing increasingly sickened by the far-reaching effects of Robotnik's iron fist.

A faint splash caught his attention. Thinking it might be the dekku fish, he made his way up the embankment for a better look at the lagoon. It was nearly mating season for the dekku, and the males always put on a spectacular show as they leaped out of the water, gaudy scales flashing and tails trailing behind them like pennants. He'd always liked watching them, though his father used to complain that he was wasting his time when he should've been studying the ancient scrolls.

However, what met his eyes when he crested the embankment was not the dekku fish. Knuckles halted and stared, blood rising in his face and making his nose sting.

Anyone unused to Bunnie might've thought she couldn't get her robotic limbs wet for fear of rusting. In fact this was a ridiculous idea. When he designed the Roboticisor all those years ago, Uncle Chuck had intended it to give old and sick beasts a new lease of life – an unworkable idea had they been forced to stay inside whenever it rained. Bunnie's limbs were coated in a high-grade alloy, completely waterproof and partially heatproof. She didn't _like _the rain, but she didn't fear it either.

It certainly made bathing a lot easier.

Knuckles turned away, cheeks burning. Mobians didn't typically care about nakedness. Those who wore clothes wore them for fashion, status or warmth, but nobeast was embarrassed by his or her body enough they felt the _need _to cover up. Yet the sight of Bunnie, sans leotard in the shallows of the lagoon … Knuckles felt so strange he _willed _her not to have noticed him so he wouldn't have to explain himself.

No such luck.

"Knuckles?"

_Damn. _Knuckles swallowed, turned and waved.

Bunnie waved back. It jiggled her front and made him feel even more bizarre. "I was just tryin' out that beeswax soap you gave me. It's mighty fine stuff. Got the grease outta my fur a treat."

"I'm glad." It seemed the most appropriate response.

Bunnie's ear trailed down her back, and both her hair and fur were plastered flat. It drastically altered her appearance. She looked smaller, her robotic limbs horribly inelegant. "You okay, Knuckles? You look a mite peaky."

"I'm fine," he replied in a strangled voice. "Just, uh, gauging where we are."

She spread her hands. "Looks like the lagoon t'me."

"I meant -"

"I know what you meant, sugar. I was just yankin' your tail. So where the hoo-ha are we?"

Knuckles focussed on the question and not on the way she leaned to one side to wring out her ears. "Near the northern coast of the Mobian Sea."

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Wow. This rock sure travels fast, don't it?"

Knuckles wasn't sure he liked Angel Island being referred to as a 'rock', but he let it slide, if only because mentally he was estimating the distance covered in the past month. Angel Island followed no set trajectory or speed. Sometimes it raced across entire continents as though pursued by demons, other times it cruised at a more leisurely pace, and sometimes it seemed almost to be standing still. Since Bunnie arrived it'd moved erratically, and had gone almost in a perfect circle. The coast wasn't far from the Great Plains, and from there it was only a hop, skip and jump to the Great Forest, and beyond, Robotropolis…

Locke, Knuckles's father and the Guardian before him, had come up with a theory that the Island's flight path was governed by the Chaos Emerald at its heart, and the Emerald was linked so closely with the Guardian that it stood to reason what was in the Guardian's heart would, in turn, influence where the Island took him or her. Knuckles was inclined to believe this theory in light of their current route.

He told Bunnie where he thought they were headed and smiled at her reaction. She clapped her hands and bounced up and down, making little splashes.

"We could visit Knothole! It's been so long – I ain't never been away so long as this. I wonder what's been an' gone on while I've been here."

Knuckles's smile faltered. It was a constant niggling in his brain that Bunnie regretted her decision to come live with him on Angel Island. No matter how many times she reassured him, he couldn't help but worry that she simply didn't want to hurt his feelings and would jump ship at the first opportunity to return to her friends. The Freedom Fighters had a common bond so powerful he was a little envious and a lot antsy. He didn't want to lose Bunnie. Strange to think that he, the Guardian who had deliberately stayed out of Mobian affairs, could become so attached to a lowlander. It was almost laughable, really. He wondered what his father would say if he were still around.

"… Only if that's okay with you." Bunnie's words snapped him back to reality.

"Huh? What?"

"Goin' down to visit Knothole. I asked whether it'd be okay, 'cause I wouldn't make you go if y'all didn't wanna. You know that, right?"

"Uh, sure. Sure, it'd be fine. No problem."

Bunnie frowned. "Are you _sure _you're feelin' all right? You're actin' right spacey."

"It's nothing. I'm just … a little distracted." He kept his eyes on her face. "The Emerald. Has been picking up on strange, uh, vibrations. Yeah."

"Vibrations? Y'mean, like, magical vibrations?"

"Maybe. It's not really clear, but I'd best keep an eye on things until the, uh, vibrations clear up. In the chambers. With the Emerald."

She nodded. "Good idea. If'n you need me for anythin', you just holler, okay?"

Knuckles agreed and beat a hasty retreat.

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	4. Old Friends Reunited

* * *

**2. Old Friends Reunited **

* * *

Sally knelt and frowned at the river. The water level was down again, as evidenced by the rulers she'd pushed into the mud at strategic intervals. Each had a tiny red line to mark where the water had reached when she first set them up three days ago. Now the waves lapped a good few centimetres lower.

"I don't like it," she told Rotor, who'd been noting down measurements as she read them out.

Rotor scratched under his cap with his pencil. "I agree. It's normal for the levels to fluctuate a little in this kind of weather, but not this much this quickly. Do you think it's Robotnik?"

"I don't know, but I wouldn't put it past him." Sally pushed herself to her feet. "Perhaps it's time to travel upstream and make sure everything's okay. But the timing…"

Finally bowing to the desires of the other Freedom Fighters, she'd arranged a reconnaissance mission into Robotropolis. She'd have preferred to wait a little longer, still thrown by designing tactics without Bunnie's strength, but Sally understood that if they left it much longer Robotnik would get suspicious and possibly bring the fight to them. As long as he was fending them off on his own turf and repairing their damages, he wasn't trying to discover the location of Knothole.

Rotor shrugged. "I could always go by myself."

Sally shook her head. "No. If it _is _Robotnik I don't want you at a disadvantage, which you will be if you go it alone. We'll just have to wait until after the raid and think of something them that doesn't leave Knothole too undefended."

"Tails would love to go on a mission. This might be perfect for him."

Sally felt herself flush a little. Tails had proven himself more than capable as a Freedom Fighter, but she still tried to keep him out of combat as much as she could, which usually involved leaving him off the mission roster completely and feigning ignorance when it was too late to change things. It was another reason she'd been so reluctant to commission a foray into Robotropolis; every active body counted in that stinking hole, and without Bunnie she'd be _expected_ to include Tails. Call her selfish, but Sally wanted to keep Tails an innocent as long as she possibly could, and if that meant hurting his feelings … well, so be it. She'd rather have him not speaking to her than traumatised or dead.

Dead. Ugh. Sally shivered at the thought, the weight of leadership heavy on her shoulders.

"Hey, what's that?"

"What?" She looked to where Rotor pointed, grateful for the distraction. "I … don't know."

Two dots sped across the sky, growing larger as they approached. They could've been Bee-Bombers, except that the more she squinted, the more Sally rejected the idea. They were the wrong shape, and Bee-Bombers travelled in swarms. They were too large to be stealth-orbs, although the sun glinted off one so it was clearly metal…

A slow grin blossomed on Sally's face. She began waving furiously. "It's Bunnie! And Knuckles!"

Rotor's eyes, typically weak for a walrus, took longer to distinguish the two shapes. When they did, however, he jumped up and down like an overexcited kit. Sally hadn't seen him so elated since the day they rescued a two-tailed fox cub from the gutter in Robotropolis and realised there might be other survivors besides themselves. "Hey, Bunnie! Bunnie, over here!"

The two figures banked left and spiralled down towards the riverbank. They landed a few metres away, feet touching down first. Each had to run a short distance to absorb the speed and impact of their descent, but eventually they came to a halt and Bunnie could wave just as frantically as her friends.

Knuckles was more reserved, watching as Bunnie disentangled herself from her hanglider and rushed over to Sally and Rotor. He waited for them to finish their greetings and come to him, and then nodded at Sally, ever the reticent one. Even in childhood he'd been frugal with words. Had Sally not been such a tenacious soul she might've taken umbrage at his coolness and abandoned their friendship before it even began.

She was glad she hadn't. Seeing the echidna again created a warm glow in her stomach, which she usually only got when everyone got back safe from a mission. It reminded her that no matter how far or long they spent apart, she would always consider Knuckles her friend.

"We weren't expecting – this is so – why didn't you tell us you were coming?" she asked.

"We didn't know we'd be travellin' over this way. The island don't exactly follow a set pattern, but just as soon as we realised we decided to mosey on down here and bother you." Bunnie winked. "Surprise."

Sally replied by hugging her friend tight. So was so pleased to see Bunnie she could hardly speak.

Bunnie's hair was a little longer, but it still sat on top of her head in a giant tuft. She glowed with happiness, and one glance was enough to convince Sally that the other girl had not suffered physically from being away from Knothole. Bunnie's flesh half was toned and she could probably still punch any one of the other Freedom Fighters into a wall without using her metal fist.

Rotor was impressed with the gliders Bunnie and Knuckles had used to fly in. He knelt to examine one, pulling at the wooden frame and the wings attached thereto. Green fabric stretched taut in a giant V shape, with hanging rails to both grip and brace one's feet against and a large loop of plaited vines coated in resin strung underneath as a makeshift harness. Keeping the body braced in that kind of perfectly straight line would've been extremely difficult. No wonder Bunnie looked toned.

"Wow, Bunnie, I didn't know you knew anything about aerodynamics."

"I ain't just a pretty face, sugar," Bunnie replied. "You think I didn't pick nuthin' up after spendin' so much time helpin' in your workshop? 'Course, yucca leaves ain't the hardiest thing in the world, but layerin' one over the other seems to work fine, provided you don't fly near anythin' sharp. Knuckles came up with the materials. I wouldn't've had a clue where to start, but he just wandered off for a spell an' wandered back again with exactly what we needed."

"We made several test flights," Knuckles supplied. "Short trips. This is the longest journey so far. They've held up fine." There was a hint of pride in his voice. His Guardian duties didn't usually call for him to exercise his imagination, and Sally recalled how Sonic once sniped that Knuckles was so straight-laced he didn't have an imagination at all.

"I'm impressed," said Rotor. "The lines are simple and clean, the resources well prepared. Did you treat the leaves with something before you stitched them together-?"

"Rotor," Sally interrupted before he could start talking shop, "I think we should get back to Knothole. These two probably haven't had a good meal in a long time."

"Hey!" Bunnie said indignantly. "I ain't such a terrible cook as all that."

Sally levelled a look at her. "Rosie's hazelnut twist pastries."

A dreamy light crept into Bunnie's eyes. "Landsakes, I'd forgotten about those. Knuckles, honey, pick up them gliders, we're gonna have us some real home cookin'."

* * *

Sat around the table in the centre of Knothole, Bunnie and Knuckles laughed and talked with the Freedom Fighters – which is to say Bunnie laughed and Knuckles politely answered their questions. He wasn't as uncomfortable in company as he used to be, and Sally swore she saw him smile once or twice.

Their presence had summoned up Rosie's inner-hostess. After producing jars of preserved fruit and dandelion cream she disappeared, only to return a short while later bearing plates of hot, buttered bread and jars of her own jams. When they were only halfway through this she reappeared yet again with assorted cakes, including the promised hazelnut pastry twists – puff pastry plaited around a thick, sweet hazelnut and honey paste. They were still warm from the oven. Everyone beamed as they worked their way through the feast and Rosie turned scarlet at the rush of compliments.

"Gracious, it's not like I had much time to prepare anything special."

"Are you kidding?" Sonic stuffed another pastry into his mouth and noisily sucked his fingers. "I could eat these all day."

"Yeah, and throw up all night," Sally jibed.

Yet Sonic was too taken with the food to fling a witty response at her. Instead he just stuck out his tongue and reached for another slice of honey cake.

Antoine sniffed as he nibbled delicately at his own cake. He'd eschewed the pastries because they made a mess and he didn't want to dirty his uniform. "I am thinking you are acting most gluttonousness, Sonic."

"Who, me? I'm just a growing hedgehog."

"Oui, you are to be growing the outwards."

"This is all muscle," Sonic replied, patting his stomach. The motion expelled a gigantic burp that echoed all around.

Rosie looked aghast. "Sonic!"

"Whoops. 'Scuse me."

"I thought you had better manners than that." Rosie wrung arthritic fingers and glanced at Knuckles. "And us with guests. What must you think of us, Mr. Knuckles?"

"It's just Knuckles, ma'am," Knuckles said. "And I assure you, Sonic's done nothing that would offend or make me think any less of you."

Rosie seemed slightly mollified, but Antoine sniffed again. "You have a strong stomach, monsieur, to being confrontationed with this display of piggery and not being sick."

"You seem to be managing fine, Ant." Sonic gestured at Antoine's plate. "That's your fifth slice."

Antoine bristled. He'd thought nobody was counting. "Truly, you are not a hedgehog, you are a hedge_pig_."

Sonic frowned. "Hey!"

"I am thinking this is what I am to be calling you from now on. Sonic the Hedgepig. It has a nice ring to it, non?"

"Non." For some reason this seemed to irritate Sonic more than Antoine's usual insults.

"Sonic, let it go," Sally chided, pushing her own pastry towards him. She'd had two and was beginning to feel a little sick. How the boys scoffed so much sugar in one sitting was beyond her. She could understand complicated computer code and martial strategy, but boys and their appetites-

"Hedgepig," Antoine smirked, seizing upon this new ammunition. It wasn't often he could say or do anything that wouldn't slide off Sonic's ego like rain off a waterproofed roof.

"You're really starting to get on my nerves, _Ant_." Sonic rose from his chair and leaned both alms on the tabletop.

They were on opposite sides of the table. Tails, who was on Sonic's other side, mirrored Sally's move and grabbed Sonic's wrist. "Sonic, did Aunt Sally tell you?"

Sonic turned to him, diverted. "Huh? Tell me what?" He looked at Sally on his other side. "What's up, Sal?"

"I'm going on the mission into Robotropolis!"

Sonic's eyes narrowed. He didn't say it, but Sally could hear him think the "Not cool." For all that he'd championed Tails's admission into the Freedom Fighters, and taken him along on missions when Tails far to young to go anywhere _near_ Robotnik's citadel, he too had doubts when it actually came to putting the fox cub in the line of fire. Sonic preferred to discuss plans involving Tails _beforehand_. Getting news of his involvement second-hand would not, as Tails had obviously hoped, improve Sonic's mood from his spat with Antoine.

Yet as Sally watched, an expression of approval clanked into place on Sonic's face. He mussed Tails's hair and gave him a thumbs-up. "That's great news, big guy! You and me against Robuttnik. Robo-town won't know what hit it."

Tails giggled. Sally breathed a sigh of relief. Probably Sonic would tackle her about this later, but for now he seemed ready to hush up and put on a happy face for Tails and the happy nature of the occasion.

Antoine, on the other hand, was less willing to bury the hatchet. "I am thinking Sonic the Hedgepig is not such a good role model for you to be following, Tails. You would be much better off to be followed _my _lead into battle."

"But there's only room for one coward under the bed, Ant," Sonic sniped.

"Will you two cotton pickin' babies just _stop _already?" Bunnie waved a frustrated hand at both of them. "Y'all are worse than a litter of minpins, an' twice as noisy. Sally-girl, what's this I hear about a mission into Robotropolis?"

Sally sighed. Here it came. She'd been concerned Bunnie would feel displaced when she learned Sally had planned a mission that didn't include her. Briefly she explained her plan: how it was strictly reconnaissance, how they were going to check out a couple of new factories on the very edge of Robotropolis, and how NICOLE had registered increased traffic to and from those factories in the past fortnight. "Traffic that doesn't stop at any other point in the city. It just comes in, stops off at the factories, and then travels back out across the Great Unknown."

Bunnie's expression was grim. "You reckon it might be more civilians from the duchies?"

Over the years Robotnik had spread his influence into the far reaches of Mobius, like an ever-widening ring of smoke from an explosion. The House of Acorn used to rule over several distinct duchies and isolated colonies away from Mobotropolis, usually in rural areas. They operated under a somewhat feudal system, whereby residents, ruled over by vassal lords, donated foodstuffs to the city. In return they were honorary Acorn citizens, protected by the hand of Sally's father, the King, against invaders from other kingdoms.

While Sally would've loved to believe that her family presided over all Mobius, she'd learned as she grew up that the House of Acorn was in fact only one of many royal families scattered across the continents. Some kingdoms were devout pacifists, but others nursed dreams of empires, and had been known to invade their neighbours, or surround duchies and try to absorb them wholesale. In the years directly preceding Robotnik's coup there had been a period of harmony and several significant peace treaties signed. This, and a resounding defeat of invading armies during the Great War, led up to King Acorn's decision to dissolve the War Ministry. However, after Robotnik rose to power he used the King's name to sneak convoys of SWATbots into the duchies before they learned of the coup, quickly and efficiently spiriting the populace to the renamed Robotropolis for robiticisation.

There were still some outlying colonies he hadn't been able to absorb, though, for a variety of reasons. Once in a while they fell. Sometimes the Freedom Fighters were able to liberate survivors before they made it to the Roboticisor, and in this way Knothole's population had increased.

Yet there had not been much happening with the duchies for a long time. Sally wondered why Bunnie had immediately leaped to this conclusion. Perhaps she was feeling a little homesick – her family came from a tiny fief in the Deep South. The huge distance from Robotropolis had always been Bunnie's comfort blanket because it gave her hope that the rest of her family may still be alive and fighting, just like the Knothole Freedom Fighters.

"It's possible, I suppose," Sally said, "but I suspected he may have found an alternative fuel source and is bussing it in as quickly as possible."

"And you wanna throw a wrench in the works," Sonic surmised. "Or a hedgehog."

Sally saw Antoine open his mouth and hastily cut him off. She hadn't intended this shindig to become a mission brief, but if Sonic was talking about this then he wasn't spoiling the atmosphere by squabbling. "That was the general idea, yes, but first we have to make sure of what exactly _is _going on in those factories. Uncle Chuck said they're heavily guarded and Robotnik never speaks of them directly. He always uses codes."

"Codes?" Rotor scratched his head and swallowed a mouthful of apple pie. "Like digital codes?"

Sally shook her head. "Code_names_. He calls the factories 'eggs'."

"Eggs?" Sonic frowned. "What, I should start calling him 'Eggman' as well as 'Blubberbutt'?"

"He also mentions transporting energy from the Etheric Region."

Rotor made an 'ah' noise. "Hence you think he's found a new fuel source."

"Whoa, wait, back up a second." Sonic held up a hand. "The hedgehog needs an explanation."

Antoine rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprising in this?"

Sonic rounded on him. "Okay, _Ant_, maybe _you_ can tell me where the Etheric Region is, 'cause I sure as heck don't remember seeing it on any maps."

"I, uh…" For a second Antoine looked panicked, as everyone around the table fixed upon him. He pulled nervously at his collar, before coughing into one fist and visibly clawing back his composure in front of his friends and Princess. "Monsieur Knuckles, you have been travelled muchly. Peut-être you can be telling us where this asthmatic region is being?"

"Etheric Region," Sally gently corrected. Usually she would've been annoyed at Antoine passing the buck to a guest, but NICOLE hadn't been able to find any Etheric Region on her maps of Mobius either, nor any cross-references in her extensive atlas library. Perhaps it was an older name that was no longer used outside its own borders.

Knuckles didn't look displeased to be asked, but he didn't exactly look happy, either. He frowned at bowl of preserved fruit in front of him and gripped his spoon as though holding a deadly weapon. It looked ridiculously flimsy in his huge glove. "I don't talk much to the people of places I fly over. Most of the time I prefer _not _to make contact, so they don't even realise I'm there. Angel Island has a special magnetic field around it that disrupts Robotnik's scanners and tells them it's just dead air up there. That's how I've kept the Emerald safe for so long. If I communicated with too many ground-dwellers it'd jeopardise my responsibilities as Guardian."

"We understand, Knuckles," said Sally.

"You might, but I don't. Is that a 'No, I don't know either?'" Sonic demanded.

Knuckles sighed. Sally recognised the timbre. "Correct."

"So we're going in blind."

"Not quite, Sonic," Sally corrected. "That's the whole point of _reconnaissance_ – it's to find out what Robotnik's up to so we can plan the best way to stop it."

"I gotcha, Sal."

"Me too, Aunt Sally."

Sally smiled. "Thanks, Tails."

"Hey, don't I get any thanks?"

"You too, Sonic."

Bunnie smacked the tabletop with the flat of one hand. Sally noticed it was the flesh one – the metal would probably have broken the wood. "Then it's settled; I'm comin' too."

"You are?" Rotor echoed.

"You are?" repeated Sonic.

Tails bounced in his seat. "Cool! Aunt Bunnie's coming on the mission!"

Knuckles looked a little shocked at the declaration. Obviously this was not something Bunnie had broached with him before, or at least not so much that he'd expected her to volunteer _this _time. Sally divided her attention between him and Bunnie as she spoke. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Bunnie?"

"'Course I'm sure, Sally-girl. I'm still a Freedom Fighter, ain't I?"

"Well, yes, but -"

"Then it's still my duty to do my part for the resistance, right?"

"But you have other commitments now -"

"Landsakes, sugar, that don't stop me from bein' who I am. I've been a Freedom Fighter since I was knee high to a grasshopper, an' I ain't about to shirk my responsibilities."

Out the corner of her eye Sally saw Knuckles deflate imperceptibly at this mention of responsibility. Coming hot on the heels of reference to his own responsibilities as Guardian, he couldn't very well react badly to Bunnie's words. Still, Sally knew him well enough to read in the slump of his shoulders that he wasn't pleased.

Yet what had he expected? Bunnie was fiercely principled, and for a long time she'd lived solely for Knothole and the Freedom Fighters.

Still…

"You've been training while on Angel Island, I suppose?"

Bunnie winked. "Kata every mornin' an' evenin'."

Sally bit her lip. She hadn't planned for Bunnie to be involved, but the desire to have her back on the team was intense – especially since Dulcy was visiting the other dragons for a few weeks. Any help was invaluable, and who knew when Bunnie and Knuckles would visit again? "All right. But you have to promise me you'll take extra care out there. No stupid risks, no unnecessary gambles, and no fancy heroics."

"Oui, you must be leaving those to Sonic," Antoine muttered.

Sonic blew him a raspberry. "And no being totally spineless. That's Ant's department."

"Hedgep-"

Bunnie clamped a hand over Antoine's muzzle. "Thanks, Sally-girl."

Sally nodded, but was aware of Knuckles's disapproving stare.

* * *

_To Be Continued …_

* * *


	5. Living in Pockets

* * *

**3. Living Inside Pockets**

* * *

"I don't like it."

Bunnie sighed. "We talked about this. I'm a Freedom Fighter –"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you have to go _this _time."

"This time, next time, what's the difference?"

"The difference is… the difference is…" Knuckles clearly hadn't though his argument through. His expression morphed temporarily from stern to flummoxed. It made him oddly endearing.

Bunnie smiled. "You knew this about me when we met," she said gently. "I can't stop bein' who I am, Knuckles, an' I can't let my friends rush off into danger without me."

His frown deepened. "Sally said you don't have to go."

"Sally-girl says a lot of things."

He looked like he was about to say more, but his mouth stayed shut tight. Bunnie gave him a moment, before turning away to finish washing the dishes. She paused only when he grabbed her arm – the metal one, without hesitation, which was only just starting to not feel weird.

"Don't go."

"Knuckles, honey -"

"Please."

That stopped her short. Being a hermit so long had done diddly-squat for Knuckles's manners, possibly even less than it'd done for his social skills. Using 'please' was as much an admission of weakness as throwing himself off a mountaintop to prove he could go splat.

But what he was asking her to do … Bunnie didn't know if she could ever forgive herself if something happened to her friends and she wasn't there to help. She remembered the time Sally was captured by Robotnik and replaced with a robot clone. She'd been a whisker away from robiticisation when Sonic came to the rescue. Cat hadn't been so lucky. Bunnie still didn't know if he was working in one of Robotnik's factories or dead. Remembering how she'd felt that day, and all the other days one of them was captured, or hurt, or worse … Bunnie knew that as long as she was capable of going on missions, she would. Being a Freedom Fighter wasn't just a title, it was a way of life.

She'd tried to explain this to Knuckles, sitting of an evening staring up at the stars, and he sort of understood. He was the Guardian, after all – he knew all about responsibility – but if Bunnie was being totally honest, she knew he was a bit snobbish about that. It'd never even entered his head that something less mystical could be as bone-deep. She'd chosen to be a Freedom Fighter. She'd made a conscious decision where he'd had no choice, so of course he viewed hers as … not _inferior_ (not after that burning village), but a lesser calling. He seemed to think that she could choose _not _to be one, too.

Bunnie knew it didn't work that way. Once you chose to fight Robotnik you were in it for the long haul – victory or death, whichever came first.

Death? _So_ not the thing to be thinking about when convincing someone you love to let you go on a dangerous mission – especially if that mission was into a death-trap like Robotropolis.

Bunnie gently uncurled Knuckles's glove from around her wrist. "I can't stay behind. Sally-girl didn't fight to keep me back as much as she could've. That means they _do _need me, even if she didn't say it out loud." A thought struck her. "You could come too."

Knuckles looked scandalised.

"What, a lil' Freedom Fighter raid is too small for the Guardian?"

"I have a responsibility -"

"I know, sugar. So do I. That's my point. I can no more say no to this mission than you can say no to defendin' that there Emerald. What keeps you from goin' is what forces me to go – responsibility. Y'all can understand that better n' most, can't you?"

He lowered his eyes. It wasn't defeat, but it was as close as she was likely to get from him. "I don't want …"

Bunnie leaned across and, unannounced, planted a kiss on his cheek. She still enjoyed the astonished expression he got when she did that. "I'll be careful."

"Like you were before?" He didn't need to spell out what he meant. The memories of Sonic carrying her back to Knothole, and the following days where she flickered between life and death, were still etched in both their minds.

Bunnie couldn't defend herself, so she didn't try. She shrugged and said simply, "I got clumsy. It won't happen again."

"You nearly _died_."

"Because I underestimated how gosh durn good a SWATbot can aim when it wants. Don't worry, sugar, I ain't lettin' 'em get the better of me again. No siree."

Knuckles folded his arms. "Do you know how I felt when that happened? Do you know what it's like to be cut out of the loop at a time like that? They wouldn't even let me in to see you."

"Knuckles, honey -"

"Helpless!"

She blinked at the vehemence in his voice.

"I felt completely helpless. I've been guarding the Emerald's power all my life, but I still couldn't do anything. I refuse to feel like that again."

"I ain't stayin' behind, sugar."

"We'll see." And with that he stalked out of the room.

Bunnie watched him go. She loved Knuckles, more than she would've – could've – ever predicted when Sally introduced him to Knothole those few short months ago. Back then he'd struck her as unsympathetic, serious and austere, but once you got to know him you realised he had a kind of charming innocence under his grumpiness. Yet she'd learned that he could also be hot-headed, and when he got a bee in his bonnet he could be unbearable until he worked things out for himself. He accepted help poorly, always demanding an impossible degree of perfection from himself. He was equally poor at accepting that the world didn't always fit in with the way he felt it ought to be. Despite the tragic events he'd lived through, Knuckles still believed that life followed a set pattern, with Good winning out over Evil and his own logic prevailing over both. He experienced fresh surprise whenever it didn't – like now.

Bunnie turned back to the washing up she'd volunteered to do. She knew it'd be useless to try to talk to Knuckles until _he_ came to a better understanding of the situation. He had to get to grips with things by himself. It was the way he operated and no amount of talking or wishing from her would change that.

A few moments later she heard footsteps behind her. "That was fast."

"You think? It felt like an age. Antoine wouldn't leave me alone."

Bunnie whirled. "Oh, Sally-girl, I thought you were Knuckles."

"Do I disappoint?"

"Not if'n you're fixin' to help me with these here dishes."

"You volunteered to do those."

"That was 'afore I done realised how much Sugar-hog _ate_."

Sally smiled and came forward to pick up a tea towel. She took the first plate Bunnie had set on the drying rack and busily set about wiping off stray suds. "So," she said after a while of companionable silence, "You and Knuckles."

"Uh-huh." Bunnie kept washing.

"How's that going for you?"

"Don't you mean 'how are you findin' life away from Knothole'?"

Sally flushed. "Am I that transparent?"

"Nu-uh, sugar. It's just the first thing I'd wanna know if'n any of y'all moved out." Bunnie handed her another plate. "It's all right. A lil' bumpy in places, but I expected that. Knuckles has been on his own for so long, he's everwhichway befuddled about livin' with someone in his pockets all the time. But the island's a big place." She shrugged.

Sally nodded. "The offer still stands, you know…"

"Sally-girl, I appreciate the concern, but I ain't ready to throw in the towel just yet. I'll admit, sometimes I hanker for the hurly-burly of Knothole, but I don't regret a thing."

Sally's expression was a little pained, but mostly accepting.

Bunnie was struck by how accommodating Sally had to be of everything and everyone around this place, and it occurred to her how they used to sit up at nights just talking about nothing in particular because it was the only opportunity Sally got to act like someone other than The Little Princess Who Wasn't.

She dunked a dish and left it under the water. "Listen, you want I should do somethin' with that nest y'all call hair?"

"Excuse me?"

"Don't kid a kidder, Sally-girl. You got more split ends than a field o' corn. Ain't you been takin' care of yourself while I been away?"

"Of course I have."

"Then obviously _I_ ain't done my job proper, if'n that's what you call takin' care of yourself. Soon as we're done at briefin' we're gonna get us some o' that there honey shampoo an' dewberry conditioner, a stiff comb, an' a pair of scissors. 'Less you're fixin' to grow it long." She tipped her head to one side to study her friend. "Actually, it might suit. 'Course, I'd have to snip the fringe back a smidge, an' that there cowlick's gotta go no matter what…"

"I'm only going to Robotropolis! It's no like Robotnik's going to appreciate a new look," said Sally.

"No, but Sonic might."

She reddened.

Bunnie smirked. "I done missed our girl-talks."

"You and me both," Sally said with feeling.

* * *

"It's so cool, Baby T," Tails enthused. "I get to go on a mission. I never get to go on missions. This one's just recon – that means we're just looking around and stuff – but that's okay. It's like Sonic said; Aunt Sally worries about me because I've been little for so long it's hard for her to accept that I'm not little anymore, so I have to prove myself to her. If I do okay on enough recon missions, maybe she'll agree to let me go on a real one again – one where I actually get to _do_ stuff."

Baby T just whuffled softly and butted Tails for another sugar cube. Tails giggled and forked it over.

The terrapod herd didn't come through Knothole often, but when they did they tended to use the village as a rest stop on their migration route and stay for a few days. On the last stopover a group of five younglings had elected to stay and form a new herd, and while Sally had worried their immense size would give away Knothole's location, the creatures had eventually won her over.

Tails loved it; he rarely got to see Baby T, who was still called that even though he now towered over the little fox. He still wasn't as big as his mother, but an adolescent terrapod was still a force to be reckoned with – not that you'd know this by watching him with Tails. Baby T had been the instigator of the younglings' separation. Confident and assertive, he acted as leader to his four-strong herd and was proving almost as effective as his mother.

Tails rubbed at Baby T's snout and giggled even more when Baby T chewed playfully on his hand. Terrapod teeth were wide and flat, built for grinding leaves and fauna into easily digestible paste, but he gripped the fingers of Tails's glove gently and wrapped his stubby trunk around Tails's arm in a gesture of affection.

"But wouldn't it be cool, Baby T? I mean, I'm already a Freedom Fighter in _name_, but if I could just get Aunt Sally to see me as one _for real_ -"

Baby T suddenly stopped and raised his head. A low noise rose in his throat, not quote a growl, but not a happy noise either. Tails turned to look at what had caught his attention.

"Knuckles?"

Knuckles overawed Tails a little. Being a Freedom Fighter had long been the ultimate rung in the ladder of Tails's mind. Even being royalty seemed less than fighting Robotnik. Then Knuckles came along with his Guardianship and his floating island and suddenly … suddenly there was another strata for Tails to think about, and he wasn't yet sure where to put it in his mental hierarchy. Seeing Knuckles stalking through the huts with a face like thunder made Tails back up a step before he remembered that he was trying to make a good impression on Sally. Good habits continued even when Sally wasn't around, so he squared his chest and stepped out to greet the echidna.

Knuckles looked startled. "You're…"

"Tails." Tails stuck out his hand.

Knuckles looked at it. "Yes. I remember."

After a long moment Tails let his arm drop back to his side. "Were you looking for Aunt Bunnie? I think she's still washing up. She made me promise to keep watch of Rosie's hut to make sure she doesn't try to do too much after making that huge meal for everyone. It's important for Rosie to rest." He nodded self-importantly. "Her heart's not so good, so we Freedom Fighters try to look out for her."

Knuckles regarded him with arms folded. "I'm not looking for Bunnie." There was something odd about the way he said it, as though he was trying very hard to keep his voice level.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked.

"I'm fine."

"Only you look like something's bothering you."

"Do all Freedom Fighters feel this urge to fight others' battles for them?"

Tails was puzzled. "We protect those who need it. We have to be strong for those who can't. It's sort of a superhero thing." He could've bitten back that last remark. Not even Sally knew that was how he saw Freedom Fighting, and he wasn't sure she'd be pleased if she ever learned of it.

Yet Knuckles didn't comment on it. Instead he said, "And I'm sure you'll do brilliantly. All three feet of you."

"You don't have to be tall to act tall!" It was one of Sonic's favourite phrases when they trained and Tails started to flag, or thought he couldn't do whatever task he'd been set. You had to think like a Freedom Fighter before you could be one, and being a Freedom Fighter was everything Tails had ever wanted outside of defeating Robotnik and discovering the identities of his birth parents.

"No, but the extra inches might keep you from getting killed in Robotropolis."

Tails was annoyed. Just because Knuckles was a guest and Aunt Sally's friend didn't mean he had the right to be mean about stuff he didn't even understand. Just because he was Bunnie's … whatever he was to Bunnie, that didn't mean he'd earned the right to treat Tails like some dumb little _kid_. "How do you know? Have you ever been there?"

"I … no, I haven't."

"Then you shouldn't talk about what you don't understand. It's like Aunt Sally says; it's better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

"Let me guess; she says that to Sonic?"

"Not _all_ the time."

"I thought as much."

Tails scowled. He'd been feeling so good, and now Knuckles had come along and ruined his mood.

Baby T rumbled softly, sensing his friend's annoyance. He took a step forward, making sure Knuckles could see the size of his feet. Terrapods weren't especially acrobatic, or even fast when compared to other creatures their size, but there was a reason Mobians treated them with respect. To a terrapod, showing off your feet was just one step below throwing down a gauntlet for a fight.

Knuckles eyed Baby T with apprehension.

"It's okay, buddy," Tails soothed. "Knuckles is just in a bad mood because he can't get his own way."

"Excuse me?"

"That's it, isn't it? You don't want Aunt Bunnie to go to Robotropolis but she's going anyway, and that ticks you off."

Knuckles boggled at him. "How did you know that?"

"So that _is_ what's bugging you?"

"I never said that." Knuckles puffed out his chest and folded his arms across it.

Tails shook his head. Knuckles was acting just like Sonic did when Sally got one over on him. He'd thought hurt pride mixed with bluster was a purely hedgehog thing, but apparently it applied to echidnas, too – or at least to Knuckles. Someone towards the back of his brain a thought popped up asking why there weren't more echidnas to test this theory on, but Tails pushed it aside. Now was not the time. He'd ask Aunt Sally about it later.

"I'm not 'ticked off', as you put it. I'm just concerned for her safety – more than she is, apparently."

"Why?" Tails was genuinely puzzled. "Aunt Bunnie' can take care of herself. Aunt Sally wouldn't let her go if she couldn't. They've both been going into Robotropolis since they were my age."

"Yes, and look where it got them. You can't tell me Bunnie's robiticisation was intentional."

Tails had to admit that it wasn't. "But that was an accident."

"Exactly." Knuckles sighed. "Why am I even talking about this with you? You're just a kid."

"I am not just a kid!" Tails flared. Baby T made a 'haroo' noise and nuzzled his arm. "If you're so worried, why don't you come along on the mission? Then you'll see for yourself how the Freedom Fighters can take care of themselves."

"That's the second time someone's told me I should go," said Knuckles. "But I have responsibilities beyond just the war against Robotnik. I can't risk leaving the Emerald without a Guardian."

"But you're already down here now – oh." Tails realised Knuckles wasn't just talking about leaving it unattended while he visited Knothole. He meant if he didn't come back from Robotropolis.

The sum total of Tails's knowledge about the Emerald and Guardian was the brief rundown Sally had told all the Freedom Fighters, so he didn't know how the duty was transferred when Guardians died, or how you even became a Guardian in the first place. Sally had intimated Guardianship was something mystical, a sacred task that had existed long before even the House of Acorn. Tails had come away thinking it must be like royalty, with one generation bequeathing it to the next.

Except that Knuckles had lived all alone on Angel Island for a long time. It was all anyone could talk about when Bunnie left to go live with him. The older biddies called it disgraceful and talked about Bunnie like she was some brazen hussy, when they weren't talking about Knuckles like he was a lecher who'd stolen her away. So that meant Knuckles had nobody to bequeath Guardianship to, which meant if he died…

"Oh," Tails said again.

Guarding the Emerald was a big deal. Tails knew this. Sally had said it was a source of great power that could be manipulated in more ways than anyone could predict, like the Power Stone in the creek that produced Sonic's power rings. The Emerald kept the entire island afloat, which was just a small indication of what it was capable of. It couldn't be allowed to fall into the wrong hands – like Robotnik's.

In Tails's mind Robotnik was the ultimate evil. What he could do with something like the Master Emerald didn't bear thinking about.

"I … guess I see what you mean."

Knuckled harrumphed. "She shouldn't go. It's not safe."

"Neither is doing nothing," Tails pointed out.

"Sometimes doing nothing is even harder than doing something," Knuckles replied cryptically.

"You mean it's harder to watch her go than make her stay?"

"You're a precocious kid, you know that? But I suppose I should've expected that, with Sonic and Sally as parent figures."

"I am not a -"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Then he turned a left without so much as a goodbye.

* * *

"Aunt Sally?"

Sally looked up from her maps. "Hey, Tails."

Sat on the table beside her, Bunnie turned and waved at the little fox. "Hey, sugar. You okay? You look all tore up about sumthin'."

Sally, too, had noticed Tails's frown. She immediately left off the planning session she and Bunnie had fallen into. "Why don't you come in and tell us what's bothering you, honey." She only got out the pet names when she was being motherly, and she only got really motherly when Tails acted like the little kid he forever claimed he _wasn't_.

"I'll be back in a minute, Baby T," Tails called out the door. After an answering honk he came fully into Sally's hut. "Can I ask you something?"

"Is it the mission? Are you worried about it?"

Tails shook his head. "I don't know which of you would be best to ask, and I'm not _worried_ about anything. I can't wait to go on the mission."

"Oh." Sally struggled to keep the disappointment from her voice.

Bunnie leaned forward. "What's on your mind, sugar?"

"I was just wondering … why is the Emerald on Angel Island so important?"

Sally looked at Bunnie, who blinked. "Y'all been talkin' to Knuckles, sugar?"

"Well we talked, but we didn't really talk _to_ each other. It was more like I talked and he talked and then he went off somewhere to grouse."

Bunnie nodded. "That sounds like Knuckles."

"Tails, why the sudden interest in the Emerald?" Sally asked.

Tails shrugged. "I just realised I don't know much about it. And since it's so important to Knuckles, and he's going to be around here sometimes now, I figured I'd better learn more about it so I don't tick him off or offend him or ask dumb questions. You know, so he doesn't think I'm some dumb little _kid_."

"Well," Sally began, folding her hands under her chin, "the Emerald's a bit of a mystery, actually. Nobody except the Guardian knows where it came from, but what I do know is that it's a way of controlling chaos energy."

"Chaos energy?" Tails looked even more confused.

"Chaos energy is like … it's the energy of everyday life and events. It's linked to probability and the power of chance – the more chance that's at work, the more potential for chaos there is, and so the more chaos energy there is. This floats about, perfectly harmless, until it comes into contact with esoteric conduits like wands and special focussing crystals and things."

"Huh?"

"Chaos energy is like magic, sugar," Bunnie provided. "Or rather, magic is one type of chaos energy. It's like air – it hangs around everythin' and everyone, an' it's important for helpin' the universe work, but we can't see it or feel it or touch it. It's just kinda _there_, an' some folk have ways of makin' it so it's _not_ invisible. They can bend it to their wills an' use it to make junk happen that wouldn't or couldn't usually happen."

"Oh. You mean like that wizard guy in the Forbidden Zone. And Naugus."

Sally was grateful to Bunnie for translating. Most of what she'd learned had been from NICOLE and the few documents they'd been able to save and recover from the castle library, so she'd never had to explain them to anyone else. "Yes, Tails. They used either objects or their own bodies to control the magic, which, like Bunnie said, is a form of chaos energy. The Emerald is another way of controlling that energy, but it's a lot bigger and a whole lot more powerful."

"So Knuckles takes care of it because it's dangerous, right?"

It was Bunnie who answered. "Knuckles guards the Emerald because it's what he was born to do, sugar, but also because he believes with his heart and soul that if he doesn't, some cotton pickin' varmint might hear tell of its power an' take it upon theyselves to try an' use that power for their own ends."

"Like Buttnick," Tails said, almost proudly.

"Uh, yeah, like Robotnik. But not just that ol' no-count jelly-belly. Knuckles guards the Emerald 'gainst _any_ critter who might try to use it. That much power has a way of corruptin' folk if it ain't used proper, so he keeps it from bein' used at all.

"Oh." Tails dropped his eyes.

"You were going to ask why he hasn't used it to defeat Robotnik already, weren't you?" Sally guessed.

"Uh-huh."

"I asked the very same thing when I first learned about that rock," said Bunnie.

"Me too," said Sally. "And Knuckles told me that while the Emerald might be able to overthrow Robotnik, the effects of releasing as much chaos energy as we'd need might do even more damage than has been done already." Sally looked down at her maps, her eye automatically settling on the zone where the last opening onto the Void had been spotted. "Just getting rid of Robotnik the man wouldn't stop the destruction done by his empire, and if the Emerald took our request literally and killed him, we'd have no way of knowing how to undo some of the things he's done."

Tails nodded slowly. "I … think I understand, Aunt Sally."

"Did that help?"

"Uh-huh. But I still don't understand one thing."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Aunt Bunnie went to live on Angel Island because Knuckles was all alone and lonely and she loves him – which is totally gross, by the way."

"Noted," Bunnie said with a smile.

"She had to go there because Knuckles has this big important job to do, being the Guardian and stopping beasts from misusing the Emerald's powers, so he couldn't leave and come to live in Knothole permanently. But what I don't get is, if the Emerald is safe, and if Aunt Bunnie went to live with him because she loves him, and he loves her, and love is supposed to make you happy, why is Knuckles still such a _grouch_?"

There was a beat. Then Bunnie started laughing so much she fell off the table.

"Oh, sugar, that done cheered me right up. Oh – ha ha – oh that's grand – hee hee."

"Uh, you're welcome?" said Tails, unable to understand what was so funny.

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	6. When Good Plans Go Bad

* * *

**4. When Good Plans Go Bad**

* * *

Knuckles appeared when they were loading SWATpod. They'd stolen it months ago and Rotor had outfitted it with sensor disruptors so other SWATbots couldn't tell there were living creatures inside. It carried them all and was perfect for sneaking into Robotropolis, provided you didn't mind being a sitting duck in a tin can. While the pod was perfect camouflage, if the SWATbots _did_ figure out their ruse there was nowhere to hide and no way of exiting it without putting themselves directly in their line of fire.

Still, Sally had planned the mission so they wouldn't have to spend too long out of the pod, which lowered their probability of being caught. While it wasn't completely laser-proof they'd lined the armour on the inside so it could stand up a little longer to get them clear. Sally just hoped they wouldn't have to test it.

The first they knew of Knuckles's arrival was Sonic's outraged cry.

"No way!"

Sally stuck her head out the door. "Sonic, we're ready to leave now. Is there a problem?"

"You might say that." Sonic jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Knucklehead here wants to come along."

"Knuckles?"

"He's correct," Knuckles said flatly.

Sally sighed. "Not that we wouldn't appreciate the back-up, but it's a little too short notice to change things-"

"I'm not requesting permission."

Involuntarily Sally's hackles rose. She liked and respected Knuckles, but he was treating this like it was some sort of game. "Good, because I'm not giving it. You've never been into Robotropolis before and I don't have time to brief you. We need to leave, and we need to do it five minutes ago. C'mon, Sonic."

"See ya," Sonic said, cocking a mock salute. "Wha- hey!"

Sally turned to see Knuckles marching up the pod gangway. "I said no, Knuckles -"

"If you don't take me along in this contraption then I'll glide in by myself and find you."

Sally's irritation increased, brushing against outright anger. A glider would be sensed in no time and put them all in danger – maybe even alert Robotnik as to their interest in his factories.

She'd never encroached onto Knuckles's duty as Guardian. The least he could do in return was respect her role as leader of the Freedom Fighters, but instead he was clomping all over her wishes with his own. Even Guardianship didn't give him the right to disregard her like that. This was _her_ territory, not his. For the frist time, Sally felt a twinge of resentment towards him.

"It's too late, Knuckles. If you wanted to come you should've said something earlier. I can't be held responsible for your inexperience, and I _won't_ have you putting everyone else at risk with it, either."

"Fine. So I'll stay in the pod and be your emergency back-up. You can carry one more, can't you? I'm coming along whether I get out of the pod or not."

Sally opened her mouth to send him away, but was cut off by Bunnie's voice.

"Sumthin' wrong, Sally-girl? We're hot to trot an' – Knuckles honey? What the hoo-ha are you doin' here?"

"I am to believe he is come to kissy you _au revoir_," said Antoine, who also appeared in the hatchway. "Ah, l'amour est si doux et beau pour voir. It is so sweet, is it not, my Princess?"

"He wants to come with us," said Sonic.

"Ah, well this is more the merrier we are being, oui?"

"I don't think so, Sugar-twan." Bunnie stepped past them all to stand in front of Knuckles, effectively blocking his path. "This sounds to me more like someone tryin' to prove a point."

Knuckles's knees and back were ramrod as ten pegs anchoring him to the spot. "It's dangerous."

"Which is why you shouldn't go, Knuckles honey."

"The same could be said for you."

"I got me experience with this sorta thing. It's kinda insultin' you don't think I can handle it when you're standin' in need of some serious trainin' 'afore you can come on _any_ mission."

"It's only recon. You said it yourself. You're even letting the fox cub come along," Knuckles pointed out, as if this supported his argument more than hers.

"Tails has more experience than you at bein' a Freedom Fighter."

"Is there an entrance exam or something?"

One half of Bunnie's mouth quirked upward. "Cute, but no cigar. You ain't comin' along, honey."

"You say that like you can stop me."

"Who says I can't?" She folded her arms, turning the conversation into a full-blown stand-off. It was impossible to ignore her strength when her metal arm caught the dying light like that.

Sally didn't know what the outcome might've been had Rotor not chosen that moment to emerge from the cockpit. "Guys, I don't know what the hold-up is, but I'd suggest finishing up quickly because if we don't we're going to miss our window in the security schedule."

SWATpods regularly had to go to checkpoints to make sure they weren't carrying Freedom Fighters or explosives. Rotor had figured out a way of interrupting the system and slotting in their stolen pod's unique serial number so they could be checked without actually being _checked_, but it meant they had to be past the checkpoints before their number was due up so as not to arouse suspicion by turning up for a check that was already listed. They had a small window of opportunity, and it was shrinking by the minute.

Sally bit her lip. It was a ridiculous idea to let Knuckles come along. She'd planned and replanned this mission; everything was organised, timed and depended on those involved knowing what they were doing. The slightest hitch might put them all in danger.

Yet she recognised that determined stance – mainly because it reminded her of herself. It was obvious Knuckles had wrestled with himself before coming to this decision, and now he'd reached it he wasn't about to back down. Fighting him would be lengthy and possibly useless anyway. If he stayed inside the pod at all times, then maybe … Having his strength in an emergency _would_ ease her mind … if they got into a fix and _did_ need to call on him it would probably be a case of strength over finesse …

"All right, you can come."

"Sally-girl?" Bunnie looked over her should in surprise.

"But you stay in the pod with Rotor and you don't complain or try to play hero when we're there, got it? I am in charge of this operation, and as of now you are not the Guardian, you are just another body under my command. You will listen to my instructions, you will not argue if you don't like them, and you will do as you're told by the other Freedom Fighters in charge. Are we clear on those conditions?"

Knuckles nodded brusquely. "Crystal."

Sonic was aghast. "Sal! You _cannot_ be serious."

"I am serious, Sonic, and we seriously need to leave. Right now." Sally gestured that they all get inside.

Sonic stamped his foot. "No way! The guy has no training and no clue. He's just doing this to tick me off."

"Contrary to what you believe, hedgehog, not everything revolves around you," Knuckles said as he made to enter the pod, but Sonic blocked his way.

"I'm just as much in charge of the Freedom Fighters as Sal, and I say no. I … I veto this! Yeah, that's what I do. I veto you coming along on the grounds that you'd just be dead weight."

"Sonic, we don't have time for this," said Sally.

"Exactly. You wait inside while I toss this fish back in the water."

Instantly Knuckles dropped into a defensive posture, claws raised and all the weight on the balls of his feet. "Just try it."

"My stars, will you two knock it off?" Bunnie planted herself between them and jabbed a finger in both their chests. "Y'all are actin' like lil' kits again. Now I don't know what problems y'all got goin' between your two egos, but it stops now, y'hear? This ain't the time nor the place. I ain't exactly happy about this neither, but if Sally-girl reckons it's okay for Knuckles to ride shotgun then that's good enough for me. I trust her judgement, an' you two would do right to do the same."

"But -"

"No buts, Sugar-hog. I reckon I know why Knuckles is doin' this, an' believe me, it ain't just to cause you trouble. Now get inside an' concentrate on your own job. An' as for _you_," she rounded on Knuckles, "while I'm touched you're worried about me enough to stand on your responsibilities, I'm also mad as all hell you'd do sumthin' this tetched. The Emerald needs you safe an' sound, an' you're out here playin' war-games?"

"You need me too," Knuckles said quietly.

"I've been doin' this for years! Just because I been on Angel Island for a few weeks don't mean I've forgot how to be a Freedom Fighter. I don't need you to hold my han-" She was cut off by Knuckles pressing a kiss to her lips.

"_I_ need you safe and sound," he whispered when they broke apart.

"Ooh la la," said Antoine. "Things are being got quite chaud, uh, hot under my collar out here. Does their display inspire such from you, my Princess?"

"Antoine, get inside and belt up."

"Oui, my Princess. I am being at your commanded." Both he and Rotor vanished.

"Sonic, that means you, too."

Sonic glared at her.

"I know it's not ideal," Sally admitted, "but we're short on time and he's long on perseverance. Remember how long he spent alone on Angel Island. Patience is his forte."

"I still don't like this, Sal."

"We'll deal. It's what we do. Now let's _go_."

Sonic finally relented. Knuckles and Bunnie followed him in, and Sally brought up the rear, pressing the button to raise the gangway as she did so. It clanked shut, sealing them all in. Sally found her seat and pulled the newly installed safety restraints across her midriff.

"How come you're here?" she heard Tails ask.

"Sometimes it's harder to do nothing than to do something," Knuckles replied.

And then they were lifting off and she was too busy going over the plan in her mind to listen to anything but her own thoughts.

* * *

"I still think this is nuts."

"Not the time, Sonic. NICOLE, what's the status on the SWATbot patrol?" Sally consulted the little computer.

"TRACKING, SALLY. SENSORS INDICATE THREE XLR MODEL SWATBOTS IN THIS PATROL. DISTANCE: TWENTY FEET."

That was what she'd expected. They were guarding just one door, so that was two sentries and one chaser, the idea being that the door would never be left unguarded if Freedom Fighters turned up. This, coupled with the dozens of other SWATbots sentries, made her even more apprehensive of what lay in the factories. The other Freedom Fighters had been stationed at each with clear instructions on what to do: go in, find out what they could, and get out again. They had half an hour if they were lucky, and they'd already used four minutes.

She hunkered down behind the clapped-out shell of a bus she and Sonic had picked for their cover. "This is all about stealth, Sonic, but we need to get in fast. Ready to do it to it?"

"I was born ready. But I'm not done being mad at you yet."

Sally rolled her eyes. She knew exactly what he meant. That didn't mean it was an appropriate time to talk about it "What was I supposed to do?" she hissed. "Knuckles is just worried about Bunnie. He promised to stay with Rotor in the pod."

"And you believe him?"

"Yes," she said emphatically. "If it weren't so foolish, I'd even think he was being quite sweet."

"Yeah, sweet like toothache is sweet."

"NICOLE, how's that opening coming?"

"OPTIMUM WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY IN … NINETY SECONDS, SALLY."

Sally nodded, even though it made no difference. "What's your problem with Knuckles, anyway? You two have never hit it off."

"I got no problem with the dude."

"Pfft, sure. That's why you and he butt heads every time you're in each other's company for more than eight seconds."

"That's not a problem. That's just him being an antisocial bag of grouch. It's hard for a bundle of sunshine like me to deal with a guy like that without the occasional witty remark."

"Oh brother. Talk about clash of the egos." NICOLE beeped and Sally stood. "Time's up."

Sonic grinned and revved his feet. "Spin and win time!"

* * *

Knuckles bounced his foot up and down. Rotor regarded it with apprehension. He didn't know Knuckles all that well, but what he'd heard led him to believe the echidna was high on patience but quick on temper. He also possessed incredible strength and abilities, which made Rotor all the more nervous about being stuck in a pod with him while the others – especially Bunnie – were out risking their tails. He didn't even smile at the unintended double meaning.

"How long will they be?" Knuckles … not _demanded_, since his voice remained steady, but definitely headed n that direction.

Rotor had already outlined the mission stats, but chose not to mention it. He was nervous around people more physically powerful than him.

As a walrus, it was expected that Rotor would be burly and strong. While his father had been runty and given to brainier interests, his mother had been a decorated Admiral in King Acorn's naval fleet – the only female ever to do so. When, after the Great War, she was released from active duty through injury she became a trainer at a première military school, and had always regarded her only son with disappointment when he took after his father. This left Rotor with the constant feeling of letting people down, especially with brute force. He had his mother's size but not her ferocity, and spent a great deal of time wishing he'd been born a mouse or a vole so he could justify his dislike of violence. He knew Sally and the Freedom Fighters valued him for his technical know-how, but on some level he found it difficult to get over the nagging feeling that he should've been able to do more hands-on stuff like they did.

Knuckles grunted. "Do they always leave you behind?"

"Not always, but this time it's more important for the pod to keep moving so it doesn't arouse suspicion."

"Just as long as you're there to pick them up."

"Don't worry. Everything's timed precisely. Sally and I made sure of it."

At mention of Sally something flitted across Knuckles's face. "Sally's a good leader." It wasn't a question, but it wasn't quite a statement either. The last syllable lifted like the lid of a pot.

"She's the best. She _and_ Sonic," Rotor quickly amended. "I don't think the Freedom Fighters would be half as effective without those two."

Another grunt. "But there still would've been Freedom Fighters?"

"Oh, totally. I mean, just look at all that Robotnik's done. Who could just leave him to destroy the world unchallenged? You might as well lay down in front of his tanks – it'd be faster and more merciful. We may not always be successful, but I sleep a lot better knowing I'm not just sitting back and hoping he doesn't come to get me like he got my folks."

Knuckles looked across at him. "Your family…?"

"Yeah, they were roboticised in the first wave. My dad worked at the palace – he was Sir Charles Hedgehog's lab assistant, so when they came for him they took my dad as well. My mom led a battalion against the SWATbots, but they were all cadets who hadn't been in training five minutes. I'm told she did some serious damage before she was captured, though." There was a note of satisfaction in his voice. Just because he didn't like the same things as his mother didn't mean Rotor couldn't be proud of her.

Knuckles nodded thoughtfully. "Was everyone … the families of the Freedom Fighters – were they _all _roboticised?"

"Mostly. Nearly all of Bunnie's were in the South, so we were never sure what happened to them, but her dad was one of the first – Antoine's, too. Robotnik got the King to summon them to the palace for his inauguration as Minister of Science, but it was really just a ruse to get all the most loyal fighters in one place so he could wipe out those most likely to fight back. You know about Sally's father, right?"

Knuckles nodded. "She told me, a long time ago. I assume nothing's changed since."

"Well, we got access to the Void, and Sally, Bunnie and Sonic made contact once, but we haven't been able to get him out safely yet – though we did get one guy, Ari, out and he was okay, so it proves it's possible."

"I imagine Sally takes a lot of comfort in that."

"Yeah. Of course, it wasn't long after that Ari set off to find out if there were other Freedom Fighters not on the King's list who might want to make contact with us since we're, y'know, Ground Zero." Rotor remembered seeing Ari set out with a pack, a staff and a mission. His actions were often questionable, but Ari had been an okay dude. They hadn't heard from him since, though sometimes they got reports on his progress from other resistance groups. The last they'd heard, Ari was making his way up the coast towards the northern border. "We thought we'd have to all stick together to deal with Robitnik's Doomsday Project, but for some reason that all went quiet after Sonic, Sally, Antoine and the Wolf Pack destroyed the test pod."

"The _coyote_ destroyed the Doomsday Project?"

"I guess Bunnie was sparse on details, huh? It's hard to believe, but yeah, Antoine played a pretty big part in that mission. He may not seem like it, but he's actually a pretty good Freedom Fighter. His fear hasn't kept him away from the fight yet, and he's totally devoted to Sally."

"And the fox cub?" Knuckles cut across Rotor's thoughts.

"Tails? He's a pretty good Freedom Fighter too, I guess, but Sally hates letting him on missions, even though he's smarter than we were at his age."

"No. His family."

"Oh. Actually, nobody's sure what happened to his parents. We found him when we first started going into Robotropolis. He was only a tiny kit; barely sitting up on his own and couldn't chew solids for the first couple of months because his jaw was broken. We found him in a pile of sewage and chemical waste. Sally reckons his folks hid out in the old underground subway system beneath Robotropolis and tried to hide him when the SWATbots finally flushed them out. Maybe they planned on coming back for him, but we went back to the spot loads of times and there was never anybody there."

Knuckles pondered this for a moment. "And despite risking the same fate as your families, you all still return to the city?"

"Of course! How else are we going to get them back?"

"I'm trying very hard to understand the mentality of you Freedom Fighters. I admit I find it difficult sometimes. Your courage is commendable, your motives even more so, but your sanity … that I find questionable. Your forces are so small while Robotnik's are so vast."

Rotor gave a barking laugh. "Man, it's not like we go running into danger half-cocked. That's what I mean when I say the resistance wouldn't be even half as strong without Sally and Sonic. He pulls off all the daring missions and gives us that edge over Ro-butt-nik, but Sally makes sure we _all_ play a real part in the fight and we all come back safe at the end of it. She understands we don't have to go into Robotropolis every day to be effective, we just need to pick and chose our battles to take the biggest chunk out of Robotnik's power-trip with minimum risk to ourselves." He glanced sidelong at Knuckles. "She still blames herself for what happened to Bunnie, you know. And she'll probably go on blaming herself until the day I perfect the de-robiticisation process."

"Are you close?"

"To perfecting it? Um…" Rotor flushed. "Not really. I thought I was a couple of times, but even Uncle Chuck isn't really sure how to undo the Roboticisor's effects. It'd be a lot easier if he wasn't camping out in Robotropolis, but we have to make the best of a bad situation, and he's been invaluable out here as our spy. That's how we knew to check out these factories."

"Yes, I heard Sally say so at the meal."

"Oh. Uh … mealtimes aren't usually like that."

"I know. I stayed in Knothole quite a while last time." Knuckles rested his chin on a fist, positioning it between the two claws that seemed no less sharp for being gloved. "You mentioned everybody's families except one: the hedgehog."

"Uncle Chuck is pretty much the only family Sonic ever had. He never talks about his parents, and we don't pry. I guess they died when he was real little." Rotor shrugged. "The Freedom Fighters are kind of one big family now. We look out for each other."

"It sounds…" Knuckles trailed off, leaving Rotor to guess what the last word would've been. "How long until we pick up the others?" he finished in a sharper voice.

Rotor checked the timer. "Not long now."

"Just make sure we're there when we're supposed to be."

"Don't worry about it. This is just recon, and because Tails is along, Sally planned her brains out to make sure nothing can possibly go wrong. Now Bunnie's out there too we're safe as houses."

Knuckles glanced out the pod's windshield at a row of devastated homes. "Just make sure we're there."

* * *

Bunnie crouched low. The wind was up, so it was the only way to keep from blowing off the factory roof while she made sure everybody's bolts and prusiks were secure. Antoine had tangled his prusik, so she quickly untangled the steadying cord and applied the proper weights to it, threading the abseiling rope through the bolt and yanking to ensure it didn't give and send him plummeting to his death on the ground far below. Tails, on the other hand, had attached everything correctly. She gave him a brief smile before attaching herself. Then they all pushed off and rappelled through the window into the belly of Robotnik's factory.

They'd chosen the only spot in this factory that was shielded from the security cameras. Robotnik never used stealthbots indoors because they got in the way of his machinery. Bunnie, Antoine and Tails stopped just before the cameras' view became clear again and dangled, hiding in plain sight.

"I am to be not looking down now," Antoine mumbled, sweating. "Here, Tails, vous can do the honour of snoozing the peculiars."

"Huh?" Tails understood only when Antoine passed him the binoculars. "Oh, you meant using the binoculars."

"Oui, oui, is what am I saying."

Tails pressed them to his eyes and stared down at the operation on the factory floor. Huge machines reached up the walls, but towards the centre everything was built lower, and seemed to converge on a focal point in the very middle of the huge space. The hum of equipment made Bunnie's ears ring and her teeth grind.

"You see anythin' peculiar, sugar?"

"Nu-uh, I don't think so. But I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to be looking for."

"Just anythin' outta the ordinary, pumpkin. These factories are usually for buildin' SWATbots, weapons, vehicles and suchlike. Does it look like that's what they're all after doin'?" Bunnie strained her eyes to see. Things would've been a lot simpler had Antoine not dropped the other two pairs of binoculars when they jumped from the SWATpod onto the factory roof. Though there were three of them they had the easier of the two raids – Sonic and Sally had to access their factory from the ground, which made it more difficult for the SWATpod to pick them up at quitting time.

"I don't think so. I can't see any conveyer belts, and there's a big platform type thing that everybody's gathered around. There's lots of Robians down there, but they're just fetching and carrying, I think. I can't really make out what's going on. Here, Aunt Bunnie," he passed her the binoculars, "you take a look."

"Don't mind if'n I do." Bunnie refocused the lenses and looked. "My stars, now what the hip-hop-howdy are they all up to?"

There was indeed a large round platform that formed the heart of the activities, set in a recessed pit in the centre of the room. While it was raised above the floor at the bottom of the pit the entire structure still sat below ground level, meaning anything and anyone standing on it would have to crane their neck to see out. Robians scurried like worker ants around several larger robots, clearly operating the gigantic machines. There was no sign of actual _life_ anywhere.

"It don't look like there's nobody here 'cept these poor creatures," said Bunnie. "But this don't look like any regular factory I ever been in. Where's the final products? Where's the shipment area, or the loadin' bay? An' what's that platform for? Sumthin' smells fishier than a tuna sandwich on trout bread."

Tails snorted. "Um," he said quickly, "so what should we do?"

"First off, I'm gonna readjust these here binoculars so's I can get a closer look at what's goin' on. Sally'll want details, not a gut feelin'. Tails, make sure nobody's after watchin' us."

"Aye, aye, Aunt Bunnie."

"I am to be thinked that one 'aye' is enough, Tails."

"Sugar-twan, button it an' keep lookout too."

Antoine huffed but complied.

Bunnie honestly didn't know what to make of Robotnik's operation. She wondered whether the other factory had the same set-up. Banks of monitors showed various digital readouts, but she couldn't read binary and so had no idea what they said. Instead she concentrated on memorising the shape of the machines so she could describe them to Rotor. With all his technical expertise he might be able to figure it out.

Suddenly Tails hissed, "Aunt Bunnie, look! Over by the main doors!"

Without taking the binoculars away Bunnie swivelled her head. "Oh, snap!"

In a display of superb ironic timing Robotnik marched into the factory, flanked by a posse of SWATbots and Snively. His mere presence seemed to lower the temperature. Bunnie shivered down to her nuts and bolts.

"What do we do now?"

Bunnie felt an old and familiar fear rise like the taste of sour milk in the back of her throat. Yet she couldn't falter. She had, as it were, her own polished limbs to live up to. Her reputation and Tails's gaze kept her from freezing up, acting like a beast who knew exactly what she was doing and why she was doing it. Ironically, Tails was holding up better than Antoine, who was already shaking at the sight of their greatest enemy.

"I am to think I will be vetting me myself if he is to spot us."

"We can't risk stickin' around with Buttnik here, it's too risky. We don't wanna alert the dumb palookas that we're interested in these here factories – though I doubt as much I'd call 'em that," said Bunnie. Tails nodded, and she continued, "Climb back up the ropes, gentle-like, like y'all done practised. Sooner we're outta sight, the better."

"Oui, oui," Antoine agreed, grabbing at his rope and hauling himself up it. "It is being a strategic retreat, n'est pas?"

"Though I do dearly wish we could've figured out what he's up to 'afore we left," Bunnie muttered. She could hear Robotnik bellowing, but above the hum of machinery his words were impossible to make out. She heard Snively squeal once, which made her think that whatever they were doing here, it wasn't going as well as Robotnik wanted.

Quickly and quietly they made their way up and out of the window in the roof. Tails went first, and then Antoine, with Bunnie bringing up the rear. Her robotic arm made it easier for her to climb, so she went last in case anyone fell so she could catch them. Not that she expected that to happen – rappelling into and down the sides of buildings had been one of the first tricks they mastered as Freedom Fighters. Even Antoine was competent at it.

Tails turned when he was out and offered a hand, but as Antoine took it his eyes widened and his karabiner and piton gave an inordinately loud shriek. A wash of panic flooded through Bunnie, as she realised that the crevices they'd created had not been deep enough. Tails threw himself down to catch either the piton or the karabiner as they tore loose from the unyielding concrete roof, but against Antoine's weight the thin pieces of metal bullwhipped out of their crevice and smacked him in the face. Tails fell back, clutching his face, and Antoine dropped through the hole before his fingers could find a purchase to save himself. A loud cry escaped his throat – which was when Bunnie clamped her metal fingers around his collar and stopped him before he fell.

"Je ne tombe pas? Vous êtes mon sauveur! Merci beaucoup," Antoine babbled, nerves and adrenaline pushing him back into French. "Thank you so much, Bunnie! I was to be thinking my handsome self was done for."

"No problem, Sugar-twan. Freak accident. Could've happened to anyone," Bunnie gritted. She wished she'd grabbed him with her flesh hand, as her arm had wrenched with the force of his descent and now the tendons cried out at the unaccustomed weight. "Did they hear you down yonder?"

Antoine peeped from between his fingers. "Non, Robotnik is to be yelling at Snively too much. He has not been noticing us way up here."

"Thank heavens for small mercies. Quick now, sugar, can you reach my rope to climb up?"

"Oui, I am to be thinking I can-" Another metallic shriek echoed from above them. "Pas encore – not again!"

Bunnie's piton and karabiner, also wedged in a shallow crevice, could not stand the weight of two bodies. Bunnie heard the noise and acted in the same heartbeat, working off pure instinct. There wasn't time to climb up, so she hauled back and used the extra strength in her roboticised arm to throw Antoine upwards. Her aim was true; he flew through the window without catching the sides – just in time, for at that moment the piton gave and Bunnie experienced the unenviable sensation of weighing more than the average Mobian with more than a hundred feet of dead air between her and the ground. She dropped like a cannonball in its descent.

Bunnie had fallen before, from both low and high places. She knew how to keep from becoming a cute little stain on the ground: the trick was to turn one long fall into lots of little ones, thereby reducing your momentum and the potential for impact damage.

Throwing Antoine had swung her sideways, so she flung out her roboticised arm, extending it and grabbing at the banks of machinery as she went past. She caught something after a few moments of sparks and rending thin metal, and swung her feet in to brace herself. She didn't stop, but she did slow a little, and pushed off to jump onto another bank of machinery that slowed her further. She did this several times, until she was close enough to ground level to extend her telescopic legs and absorb the brunt of the impact by retracting them as she made contact. The shunt reverberated up her spine and made her eartips tingle.

She was battered, bruised, and short of breath – but she was alive.

For now.

"Sir, it's a Freedom Fighter!" Snively cried. He was also battered and bruised, and evidently trying to regain kudos by pointing her out.

It didn't work. "Don't just stand there, you fool! Get her!"

"Bilberries," Bunnie cursed, trying to dash away. "Talk about outta the fryin' pan an' into the fire."

A phalanx of SWATbots closed around her. In between them she could see dozens of Robians also gathering, their eyes a vicious red. All hands reached for her, and the whine of cocked laser rifles filled the air as tiny dots focussed all over her body. There was no way she could evade them all; still, she vaulted over a bank of machinery, only coming to a stop when she landed in front of two Robians she recognised as former palace guards.

Knowing that to fight them was to fight innocent victims, she tried to evade them, but a blast of stun-gun fire hit her in the back. Bunnie dropped the last three feet to the floor.

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	7. Fight at the Factory

* * *

**5. Fight at the Factory**

* * *

"Uh-oh."

"What does 'uh-oh' mean?"

Rotor tapped at the digital readout on the SWATpod's dashboard. "We've got trouble. All available SWATbots are being called to the two new factories. Our pod just got the security call to go there immediately." He met Knuckles's gaze with something like embarrassment mixed with alarm. "It's to deal with a Freedom Fighter threat, and it's not the specific codes Robotnik uses to identify Sonic or Sally."

Knuckles sat bolt upright. "Bunnie's team!"

Rotor banked a hard right and took off back towards the factories. "Remember what Sally said – you're to stay inside the pod, okay?"

"I know what Sally said," Knuckles growled.

Somehow his response didn't fill Rotor with confidence.

* * *

Sally had NICOLE plugged into the system when the alarm sounded. Immediately she knew something had gone wrong and they'd been found out. Sirens blared and the sound of pounding metal feet echoed up the walkway to the control centre she and Sonic had broken into using the ventilation system. They hadn't seen the majority of the factory floor, but she'd downloaded a lot of valuable data by the time they had to go. 

"Juice and jam time, Sal," said Sonic. He'd waited as patiently as was possible for him, and was eager to be off in more ways than one. He always felt more vulnerable when forced to stand still for too long. "They must be onto us."

Sally disconnected NICOLE and jumped into his arms. "But how? Nobody saw us come in and nobody's been up here since we -"

"FREEDOM FIGHTER SPOTTED IN EGG FACTORY TWO," NICOLE intoned. "THAT IS THE REASON FOR THE DISTURBANCE, SALLY. ALL AVAILABLE SWATBOTS ARE CONVERGING ON THAT TARGET, INCLUDING THOSE OF THIS FACTORY."

Sally's eyes grew round.

"Think it's a problem next door?" Sonic asked.

"I think we should go there first for Rotor to pick us up."

* * *

Bunnie struggled, but she was groggy and had only one metal arm, while the SWATbots that held her had two. She considered kicking their ankles out from under them, but the rifles were all still trained on her and as Robotnik approached fear swelled inside her so much that she actually stopped pulling for a second.

Physically, Robotnik was grotesque. His round belly, silly moustache and ridiculously short legs should've made him a laughing-stock, but staring him down inspired the kind of gut reaction that could only come with knowing the true evil of which he was capable. His impressiveness stemmed from a lifetime of watching him work and knowing he felt no remorse for any of the suffering he'd caused. A jelly belly was all well and good, but it was the mind that shared the body that was the real menace. You didn't often look into the eyes of some who'd kill you just because it seemed a good idea at the time.

"Well, well," he purred, "being a little nosy, are we?"

Bunnie snapped from her stupor at the sound of his voice. "Go boil your head, Robotnik." Her words were only a little slurred.

"Ill-mannered wretch. But no matter. I am, after all, the one holding all the aces. Answer me quickly: where are your comrades, and what have you done to my Quantum Transporter?"

"Your whosit-whatchamacallit? I ain't got a single clue what the hoo-hah you're talkin' about, Buttnik, but there ain't nobody here but me. This was a solo mission."

"I find that hard to believe. You Freedom Fighters always travel in groups. You're like cockroaches that way – bugs I intend to squash. SWATbots, prepare to fire." He raised a hand and his voice. "Your comrades have thirty seconds to show themselves or I will shoot you where you stand, Miss Rabbot."

Bunnie took no pleasure in him knowing her name. She willed Tails and Antoine to stay hidden. They'd be shot before they could save her, and none of them were fast enough to evade so many guards. She didn't intend to go down, or at least not without a fight, but if she did fall she didn't want them going with her. Robotnik was going to give the order to shoot whether they revealed themselves or not and there was no need to sacrifice themselves needlessly. There was a chance she wouldn't be killed – the blast before had been set to stun, after all. Robotnik would want to finish roboticising her so he could extract information about Knothole, which gave the Freedom Fighters a window to either rescue her, or for her to get away.

All this passed through her mind in the short moments it took Robotnik to draw breath.

"You're fishin' for clouds, Robotnik. There ain't nobody here but me, an' I ain't tellin' you squat."

"Brave words, but ultimately worthless. Snively!"

"Yes sir?" Snively clutched at his small palm-computer like a life preserver. It was bulkier than NICOLE and didn't have artificial intelligence, but connected him to Robotnik's operations at the touch of a button.

"Send a squadron of SWATbots to the roof. I feel a breeze." Robotnik looked directly at the open window.

Bunnie followed his gaze. There was nobody there, and her rope had fallen in with her. It lay a few feet away by the edge of the recessed platform. Yet panic still gripped her chest. _Please let 'em have just left. Please don't make 'em play hero on my account._

"Yes sir." Snively withdrew to the periphery to speak hurriedly into his computer.

Robotnik grinned. "Your thirty seconds are up Miss Rabbot."

"So shoot me already."

"So impetuous. No doubt you're hoping that if I shoot you, your fellows will be able to escape."

"What fellows? I done told you – yow!" One of her SWATbot captors squeezed her flesh wrist. "Watch the merchandise, buster."

"Trust me, Miss Rabbot, when I say that they will be captured as well, and roboticised, so there's no need for false bravado. Though I do enjoy seeing you Freedom Fighters squirm." He nodded at the SWATbot, who squeezed Bunnie's wrist again. She felt the bones grind together and bit down on a cry of pain. "You creatures have caused me so much trouble – especially that hedgehog. But in his absence, you will do just as well."

"Ngh, careful you don't let your jaybird mouth overload your hummingbird butt," Bunnie gritted.

A SWATbot approached carrying a large glass tube with a metal cap over one end. It made to place this over Bunnie, sealing her in for easier transportation. For Bunnie, this was proof that her own personal nightmare was o the verge of happening – the robiticisation process that had already stolen so much from her was poised to take the rest.

She made her move – just at the moment the main doors exploded.

* * *

Rotor cried out when Knuckles suddenly grabbed the controls. "What are you doing?"

Knuckles didn't reply but wrested them from Rotor's claws and jabbed at the accelerator. The SWATpod powered forwards, andf when Rotor looked outside he realised what Knuckles was up to.

"No, don't!"

Too late. The pod crashed into the double doors that formed the main entrance and exit to the factory. There was the squeal of distressed metal, and for a second Rotor was convinced the hull integrity wouldn't be enough and they were about to become red jam with shrapnel seasoning. Yet the doors were apparently not strong enough to withstand a full frontal assault, and bowed inwards. Knuckles jabbed the accelerator again and they flew from their hinges entirely, skidding across the floor towards a company of SWATbots and Robians.

And in the centre of the group stood three figures Rotor recognised instantly. Robotnik's bulk was tattooed on his mind, and where he went Snively tended to follow. Dangling from the grasp of two SWATbots was –

"Bunnie!" Knuckles shouted. He jabbed once more at the accelerator, sending the pod careening towards the group.

"Are you crazy?" said Rotor, shoving him away. "There's Robians out there!"

"They have Bunnie!" Knuckles replied, shoving back and keeping their course straight.

The SWATbots toppled like bowling pins. Robotnik yelled and leaped aside, and Rotor noted with relief that they'd flown high enough off the floor not to hit any Robians. With a surge of strength he hadn't known he possessed, Rotor yanked the controls from Knuckles and turned the pod around. Their cover was blown, he couldn't help that, but they _could _save –

"Bunnie!" Knuckles slapped the control to open the pod hatchway and leaped out before it was fully open.

* * *

"Huh?" Bunnie couldn't quite believe it when the SWATpod went skimming over her head. She felt it whisk past her ears, taking out the SWATbots that held her, which toppled over backwards. However, they didn't release their grip, meaning she fell with them and found herself in a tangle of metal and flesh limbs. A foot hit her in the head and she saw even more stars than before.

"Bunnie!" shouted a familiar voice.

_Knuckles?_ But he and Rotor were supposed to stay in the pod. Without them, how were the others supposed to be picked up? Tails and Antoine would be waiting on the roof with enemies on the way, not to mention Sonic and Sally stranded in the other factory. Dazedly, Bunnie fought to get up, but her wrists were still held tight. What were these, SWATbots or clothes pegs?

"Bunnie, hold on!" Knuckles shouted again. The clang of metal heralded he'd reached the first line of SWATbots – likewise Robotnik's furious cry.

"Fire! Fire, all of you! Get the Freedom Fighters!"

_**TSEW! TSEW!**_

"Not at the Quantum Transporter, you fools! And set your lasers to stun in here!"

* * *

Sally and Sonic arrived just in time to see Knuckles ploughing into a mass of SWATbots. Beyond him, the stolen SWATpod hovered with its hatchway open and several Robians marching towards it. The pair took in everything at a glance, including Bunnie, Robotnik and Snively, who was prancing agitatedly and trying to stay out of Knuckles's way.

Sally frowned. "I told him to stay in the pod!"

"No time for lectures now, Sal, we got bigger fish to fry."

"You're right." Sally climbed out of Sonic's arms. "Get Bunnie. I'll help Rotor."

Sonic nodded, but even as he revved he was looking around. "You see Tails and Ant anyplace?"

Dread corroded a hole in Sally's stomach. She didn't see them anywhere. She forced herself to think logically and not listen to the little voice saying _this _was why she should have made Tails stay home. "They might've escaped already, in which case we need the pod more than ever."

"Or they might be in there under all those SWATbutts," Sonic said grimly. "Spin and win time!"

* * *

Bunnie marshalled her wits enough to kick out with both legs, throwing off the SWATbots that had fallen on top of her. One captor had its grip torn loose, releasing one of her hands, though her flesh wrist remained gripped. Bunnie punched the remaining SWATbot, putting all the force of her extending arm into it. her bones extended, her fist locked, and the bot's head seemed to jump off its body on its own. It slumped across her, throwing sparks into her fur.

"Yowch!" One had landed on the tip of her nose.

"Bunnie!" cried a new voice.

"Sugar-hog?" Well wasn't this just a fine old shindig with everyone invited? Bunnie struggled to her feet, helped halfway by friendly hands.

"You okay?" Sonic was looking around even as he said it.

"Well now, I'm fine as a frog hair split in half." Bunnie rubbed at her head, stumbled, and leaned gratefully against him. "More or less."

"Hold that thought." Sonic set her upright and whirled, spikes out, at a laser-toting SWATbot. It split down the middle and fell back, taking out another bot. As they fell they revealed Knuckles, who was trapped several feet away taking chunks out of half a dozen bots that had set upon him.

"Knuckles honey!" Bunnie exclaimed.

He didn't appear to have heard her, as he leaped on the chest of a SWATbot and tore it apart with his claws.

She turned to Sonic. "I sure am glad to see y'all, Sugar-hog, but I suggest we get the hip-hop outta here 'afore Robotnik captures everyone."

"Done and done," Sonic replied, slipping her flesh arm around his neck. She was too heavy to carry the way he did Sally, but she'd long since learned how to 'tuck and suck' – meaning tuck herself into a ball he could drag without injury and suck in a lungful of air, because it was difficult to breathe at high-speed. "Hold tight, Bunnie."

Usually that was Bunnie's cue to agree, but today she resisted. "Please, Sugar-hog, forget me an' help Knuckles."

"It looks to me like Knucklehead doesn't need my help. He's actually pretty good at kicking SWAT-butt." Bunnie heard the grudging note in Sonic's voice, even over the noise of battle.

"Please, sugar -"

"Okay, okay, I'll help him, but forget me forgetting you. Just hang on."

Being with Sonic when he ran was unlike anything else Bunnie had ever experienced. Even the Freedom Flyer, their self-made plane, didn't compare. For a second the world was reduced to a smear of colour and splintered sound, and every part of her felt light as air. Then they juddered to a halt and her feet touched solid ground again. It took her mind an extra second to catch up and realise she'd been dropped off next to the SWATpod hatchway, by which time Sonic had doubled back towards Knuckles.

"Bunnie!" Sally stood on the hatchway steps. She held a laser obviously detached from a SWATbot arm. "Quickly, get inside. I stunned them, but I don't know how long it'll last." She gestured to the ring of Robian factory workers at Bunnie's feet.

Bunnie felt the twang of pity she always did when confronted with Robians, but turned away from them and scurried towards Sally. However, only a few steps up she paused and looked back.

Knuckles's fight had taken him to the very edge of the pit. Sonic bounced from bot to bot, also perilously close.

Robotnik stood by a bank of monitors, practically apoplectic. "Get those horrible rodents away from the Transporter!"

"What's the matter, Robuttnk?" Sonic halted atop a small plinth covered in buttons and dials. "Are we making a mess of your nice clean hellhole?" He danced on the buttons, crunching a few and setting dozens of tiny lights flickering.

"Fire! Fire, you fools! Get that hedgehog before he-"

But Sonic was already gone.

The platform in the pit started to glow.

"Bunnie!" Sally grabbed her shoulder, snapping her attention away from Sonic and Knuckles. "Where are Antoine and Tails?"

"Up on the roof. But Sally-girl, there's a whole buncha bad guys on their way up there to get 'em."

Sally's expression was grim. "I _knew _this was a bad idea."

* * *

Knuckles punched the face of another hideous robot. It caved in and the body collapsed, twitching. He'd had limited experience with SWATbots before today, but learned fast that the best way to deal with them was to get up close and personal so they couldn't use their lasers, and to hit them before they could hit you.

He saw Sonic wade in and rescue Bunnie. Had he not been so relieved she was safe he would've been irritated that the hedgehog had done so easily what was taking him so long. After jumping into the fray without difficulty, Knuckles had found that getting back to the SWATpod was harder. Every time he turned around there seemed more robots to hit. Lines of them streamed in the door, and it was only a combination of agility and brute force that had saved him so far.

All the same, his irritation flared when Sonic cut down the bot he was fighting and smirked like he expected Knuckles to _thank_ him.

"I was handling the situation."

"Yeah, it looked like it." Sonic grabbed Knuckles's wrist. "C'mon, we're outta here."

"I can walk by mys-" Knuckles started, but cut himself off by bounding past Sonic and landing a solid punch on the SWATbot sneaking up on him. The bot ended at its torso, its legs somewhere in the melee, and had dragged itself over using just its arms. Its shortness meant Sonic, in his haste, hadn't seen it until Knuckles left it sparking mere inches from Sonic's feet.

"Hey, I could've handled that!"

"Of course. It looked like it." Knuckles was breathing hard, but still managed to inject a significant amount of irony into his tone.

"Whatever. Time to juice." Sonic grabbed his wrist again.

This time Knuckles didn't fight it. The faster he got back to Bunnie, the faster they could get out of here and the faster they'd _all_ be safe. He'd known this mission was a bad idea from the start.

The two were so concentrated on each other that they failed to notice Snively. Beset by his own fear of Robotnik and a paradoxical desire to win his approval and better him, Snively had seen them pause and taken the opportunity to grab a laser rifle that'd fallen at his feet. Flipping it from 'stun' to 'lethal', he took aim and fired just as Sonic revved. The blast missed, instead hitting the SWATbot carcass Knucles had just punched, igniting the small fuel source in its chest. The bot exploded, and the force of the blast sent both Sonic and Knuckles flying.

"Gaah!" Sonic cried out. He crashed into Knuckles and the two tumbled through the air, over the side of the pit.

"No!" Robotnik seized Snively by the lapels. "You blithering idiot. I should tear your heart out!"

Snively squeaked and covered his face, letting the rifle fall. "I'm sorry, sir! I just thought … sir, the hedgehog, he was a perfect target -"

Down in the pit, Knuckles sat up. He appeared to be sitting on a large glass disc, lit from beneath by a collection of wires and filaments. Through the bluish-white rays he could see Sonic also sitting up and rubbing his tail.

"Man, Knucklehead, you need to lose a few pounds. You landed right on top of me."

Knuckles didn't dignify this with a response. There was still noise coming from above, but that was no longer his primary concern. As Guardian, he was finely attuned to nuances in magnetic forces. The roots of his fur now ached from the static electricity crackling around them, and there was a sense of pent up energy that thrummed through his head as strongly as the Chaos Emerald had when his father disappeared. Back then he'd fled the Emerald Chamber because it hurt so much, but he was stronger now and simply gritted his teeth.

"We need to get out of here," he told Sonic. "Now."

"Why?"

"Because something is very wrong with the energy fluctuations around this disc we're _sitting_ on, and if we don't move we'll be at the centre of them when they go off."

"Go off? Like 'boom'?"

"Very possibly."

"Don't need to tell me twice."

This time, instead of grabbing his wrist, Sonic scooped Knuckles into his arms like he had a thousand times before with Sally. The indignity of being carried that way superseded the throbbing in Knuckles's head, but he had no time to protest before Sonic revved. They circled once, twice, thrice, and then used the gathered momentum to run straight up the sheer side of the pit.

"Way past!" Sonic yelled as they shot across the factory floor and into the SWATpod.

"Knuckles!" Bunnie was dishevelled but wore a look of intense relief. "An' Sugar-hog. My stars, I ain't sure whether to tan your hides or kiss y'all."

"No time for either," Sally snapped, closing the hatch. "Rotor, take us up. We have to find Tails and Antoine and get out of Robotropolis – fast."

"Roger, Sally." Rotor eased back the controls, tilting the pod on its end. Then he pushed the accelerator and they jetted upwards, away from the fresh batch of arriving SWATbots. Laser fire ricocheted off the pod's exterior, but it held for as long as it took them to reach the roof. "Brace for impact," said Rotor, right before they crashed through the window, widening the hole and scraping their belly through the still-narrow gap.

"We're through," Sally exclaimed, as though she hadn't been sure they'd make it. "Rotor, can you see them?"

"Nu-uh, Sally. They aren't up here." More laser-fire glanced off the hull. The entire pod juddered. "Whoa, but a load of SWATbots are! I've got to pull back."

"No! Not until we have Tails and Antoine!"

"It's either that or crash, Sally. We've sustained a lot of structural damage already. Too many hits and we'll fly like a rock with paper wings."

"But -" Sally's face was anguished.

Sonic's wasn't much more cheerful. "We'll find 'em, Sal. Count on it."

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	8. Fallout

* * *

**6. Fallout**

* * *

They eventually found both Tails and Antoine on the outskirts of the city, and purely by chance. Rotor was just explaining that the strange whining noise was the engine, and that they'd have to ditch the SWATpod now _anyway _because Robotnik knew it was bogus, when something thumped against their side.

Tails had a rag around his eyes. It was too soaked with blood to tell what colour it had been originally, but when Sally opened the hatch to let them in, it was plain Antoine had torn it from his own jacket. The move was so unprecedented from the ever-fastidious coyote that everyone instantly knew things were serious.

It emerged that Tails and Antoine had escaped from the roof of the factory before the SWATbot enforcers arrived, intending to hook up with the other Freedom Fighters and mount a rescue for Bunnie. Tails was flying blind, however, and they'd quickly become lost. Dangling from his arms, Antoine had tried to direct them, but his garbled instructions put them deeper into enemy territory. Eventually they'd been forced to hide in an abandoned diner to try and get their bearings. When the damaged SWATpod flew overhead they'd taken a chance and followed it, until Antoine's belated "Arrêt!" had Tails flying into it when they should've hovered.

"Tails, how'd this happen?" Sally asked, plucking at the rag. She took off her own vest and started trying to tear it into strips, but the fabric was too tough.

"It was an accident. When Antoine's rope came loose the little metal bit caught me. I'll be all right, Aunt Sally, honest I will."

There were tears in Sally's eyes as she drew him into her arms and ruffled his hair. He stiffened, but didn't cry out, just bunched his fists in pain. "I'm sure you will, honey." She caught Antoine's eye and nodded at him. "Thanks for looking out for him, Antoine. You're a real hero."

"Is what I have been saying for too long time, my Princess." Yet instead of proud, Antoine just sounded tired. Both he and Tails were streaked with dirt and blood, and for all protestations that he was fine, Tails was trembling. Being lost and injured in Robotropolis was the stuff of nightmares.

"Aunt Bunnie?"

"Here, sugar." Bunnie knelt beside Tails. "This ain't exactly how I pictured your first mission with me. Guess I got you into a real pickle, huh?"

"It wasn't your fault. Like you said, it was a freak accident. I just wanted to apologise."

"What the hoo-hah do you got to apologise for, pumpkin?"

"For running away when I should've tried to save you. I'm sorry."

There was a catch in Bunnie's voice as she said, "Now you listen here, sugar, an' you listen good: you ain't got _nuthin'_ to apologise for. This weren't nobody's fault. I'm all right, an' you're … gonna be fine." Her smile was thin. "Sure y'are."

The air was thick with tension. Sally had not yet reprimanded Knuckles beyond a few curt words, which indicated the full extent of her fury. When she was angry Sally clammed up, and her silence created a vacuum into which all other conversation sank without trace. The arrival of Tails and Antoine put further strain on the little craft as it wended its way to the border, strangely unmolested and limping away from what should've been a simple recon mission.

They abandoned the SWATpod on the edge of the Great Forest, unwilling to take the chance that Robotnik could follow it back to Knothole and promising to return later and clean up. After fighting Robotnik's pollution for so long it would be ironic for them to bring garbage out with them and dump it themselves.

It was a sorry bunch who finally shambled back into the village. Nobody was there to meet them, but lights flicked on as they passed and various beasts emerged to help.

"What on Mobius - "

"Here, let me carry the little guy."

"Do you want some help?"

"You're bleeding!"

"I'll get some bandages!"

"But I thought this was one of the safe missions…"

Tails was spirited away by Rosie and Cornelius, a duck who'd once been a doctor until the robiticisation of his family fractured his mind into multiple personalities. Sally was loath to release Tails into his care, but Rosie convinced her Cornelius knew what he was doing, and Sonic promised to stay with 'the Big Guy' to make sure. There was an artificial quality to Sonic's confidence that made Sally extra worried as he walked away with Tails in his arms. Despite his earlier bravado, Tails whimpered softly.

"Mission debrief in my hut," Sally rasped.

"Sally-girl -"

"Now."

* * *

Bunnie hated arguments. Fighting she could handled so long as it was physical – when it was just a case of punching and kicking there was a tranquillity of mind she could get behind – but raised voices and jagged, angry words cut across her like a serrated knife.

"I told you," Sally gritted, "to stay in the pod. You deliberately disobeyed my orders, damaged the SWATpod _and_ revealed it to Robotnik so we can never use it again, nearly got yourself and Sonic killed, and for what?"

Knuckles glared at her, a deeper glare than usual. Bunnie had never seen him look at Sally that way before. It scared her a little.

"I know you were trying to help Bunnie," Sally went on, "but that's no excuse for running of without a plan. Going up against Robotnik's forces isn't as easy as just whacking a few heads – do you know how far behind we are now? Robotnik knows we're interested in his factories _and_ he know you're working with us."

"I'm fully aware of that." It was the first thing Knuckles had said in the whole dressing-down. "Don't think I'm not conscious of what I jeopardised in trying to play hero."

Bunnie was shocked when he turned his glare on her. Was he trying to imply that it was _her _fault he'd revealed himself to Buttnik? She felt guilty that caring for her had spurred him into making a mistake, but she wouldn't accept _all_ the blame. Knuckles had promised to stay in the pod and then broken his promise. It was touching he'd done it for her, but he'd broken his word and no amount of rationalisation would change that.

However, Knuckles turned away before she could say anything, and because Bunnie hated arguments she didn't bother retaliating after all. Her head hurt where she'd been struck, and the ice-pack one of the villagers had provided was doing little to assuage her thumping headache.

Antoine and Rotor sat back in their seats, obviously uncomfortable. At last Rotor leaned forward and said, "Sally, it wasn't totally Knuckles's fault."

"He's right, Sally-girl. If I hadn't been so plumb stupid an' fallen, none of this would've happened." Bunnie felt wretched. If only she'd checked to make sure the ropes were secure they would've gotten away clean, Tails would be all right, and she wouldn't be watching her best friend and beloved fighting like ferals over a carcass. There'd been no word of Tails's condition, but the longer it went on, the more she became convinced of the worst and the more terrible she felt.

"At least we are getting our information on Robotnik's operations, ne sommes-nous pas, my princess?" Antoine tried.

"It's a small consolation compared to what we stand to lose over this," Sally replied.

Knuckles thumped the table. Everyone jumped, including Sally. "I admit to my own foolishness, Sally, but I _won't_ stand for you taking your frustration at yourself out on me. _I _am not responsible for the fox cub's injuries, and despite how you're obviously blaming yourself, neither are you. Things didn't go according to plan, now accept it and move on."

Sally's mouth opened and shut, but no sound cam out. After a few moments she slumped backwards into her chair and put her head in her hands. "It _is_ my fault," she said softly. "I let Tails come along. I didn't want to, but he pestered and pestered, and I let him convince me he was ready…"

Bunnie had seen her friend feel helpless many times, but progressively fewer as they got older. The brittle façade that was Princess Sally, Freedom Fighter cracked only infrequently to reveal Sally Acorn, teenager, who lived underneath, so it was disquieting to see it happen now – and so publicly. Sally held her feelings close to her chest, and sometimes Bunnie felt that she was only truly herself when she was alone with Sonic, or in the few brief moments when she forgot about Robotnik and their desperate struggle. Sally was a lot more fragile than she liked to admit.

"It wasn't your fault, Sally-girl," Bunnie soothed. "If I'd just driven the pitons further in -"

"Non," Antoine broke in, "it was being my rope that did this. It was being my responsibleness to be checking my own equipments."

"Will you two stop it?" Sally snapped.

Sonic's absence was acute as they all sat there, nobody sure what to say. Sonic always knew what to say, even when he didn't.

They were almost grateful when someone knocked the door. Rotor sprang to his feet and pulled it open for Rosie to enter, followed by Cornelius Quack. From outside came a strange keening, like that of an animal in pain.

"What the hoo-hah is that racket?" Bunnie asked.

"The young terrapod," Cornelius informed her. "It parked itself outside my hut and hasn't moved since."

"Why is it bewailing and bemoaning like that?" Antoine wanted to know.

"Perhaps it senses what I've come to tell you."

"Now Cornelius," Rosie interrupted, "we said we'd break it gently."

"Break what gently?" Sally's tone was sharp, her eyes sharper. "It's bad news isn't it? Where's Sonic?"

"He's still with Tails, dear," Rosie said in the voice she used to use when telling them their families had felt no pain as they were roboticised. "We all thought it was best."

A fresh surge of wretchedness sluiced through Bunnie. All at once she wanted Knuckles to hold her in his arms, but he was cold and distant. "I done thought … I mean, I'd _hoped _all the damage to Tails's face was superficial." She sounded weak and pathetic and she knew it, but she felt so responsible for what had happened that the implications made her feel sick to her stomach.

Cornelius gave a rough laugh. "Superficial! Ha!"

"Cornelius -" said Rosie.

"He's lucky to have got away with only one eyeball punctured."

Sally's hands flew to her mouth and Bunnie's grip on the ice-pack tightened so hard her metal fingers broke through. Ice-cubes clattered onto the tabletop and floor. Antoine muttered something in French, while Rotor dropped his gaze.

Only Knuckles seemed unaffected, and suddenly Bunnie felt disproportionately angry with him. It wasn't his fault what'd happened, it wasn't anybody's fault really, but the sight of him not reacting in the slightest made her horribly aware of her own melodramatics and she hated herself for thinking of that when poor Tails was contemplating a life with only one eye and –

"Can he see outta t'other?" she demanded. If Tails had been completely blinded on her watch she'd never forgive herself.

"He'll regain full sight in his right eye eventually," Cornelius said briskly. "But I'd recommend resting both eyes for the time being. The scarring won't be too extensive, but I'd like to keep it covered for a few days so I can treat it without risking infection."

"Scarring?" Bunnie said in a small voice. Tails was only ten. Even she'd been fourteen before their war left her with visible reminders, and there was a chance she'd be healed back to normal one day. For Tails there wouldn't be that chance.

"Je ne peux pas le croire," Antoine muttered. "He is too much youngling. C'est trop affreux."

"It was only supposed to be reconnaissance," said Sally. "How could I have got it so wrong?"

Knuckles abruptly rose from the table and marched out of the hut. As he banged the door shut behind him they could hear Baby T's wails, sounding like a banshee from one of the ancient legends.

Bunnie jumped up and ran after him. "Knuckles! Knuckles, wait!"

He didn't even slow down.

"Knuckles!" She caught up and planted herself in front of him, but he stepped around her and kept going towards the bridge and the path out of Knothole. "Knuckles, what the hip-hop are you after doin'? You just gonna walk outta here?"

He grunted.

"It ain't like you to run away. Knuckles, you stop your tail right this minute."

He rounded on her and for the second time that day Bunnie was surprised at the fury in his eyes, and doubly surprised that it was focussed on her. "I wish I'd had the forethought to do that back in Robotropolis."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Forget it." He started walking again.

Too stunned to move, Bunnie watched him go and became aware that he was favouring his left leg. He must've been injured in the fight, or when he fell into the pit with Sonic. Concern replaced surprise. She shook her head and ran after him again. After years of dedicating herself to fighting Robotnik's evil, she was nothing if not tenacious. "You're hurt."

"I heal quickly."

"Siddown a minute an' let me take a gander at it -"

"I don't want to sit down. I don't want you to look at it. I just want to get the hell out of here before anything else happens."

"Nuthin' else is after happenin'. We're safe in Knothole. Knuckles, honey -"

"No! No 'honey', no 'sugar', no more sickly pet names. Do you understand what I risked back there? I ran into a fight against enemies that could kill me, and I wasn't even doing it to protect the Master Emerald! I risked my life, risked leaving the Emerald without a Guardian, and I didn't even consider the consequences until afterwards."

"You were tryin' to save me -"

"I know that!" Knuckles roared. He stopped at the edge of the bridge and let out a huge breath.

Bunnie stopped only centimetres behind. She could see his chest go in and out and practically feel the heat coming off him, but she was suddenly reluctant to touch him in case he went off like a powder keg. This was a new side of Knuckles she was seeing – an unsettling rage that made her fur prickle like static before a thunderstorm. She didn't know how to react to it, or to him.

"I know that," Knuckles said again, softer this time. "I … I wasn't thinking about the Emerald, or my duty, or anything except the thought that I might lose you. That thought made me take a terrible risk, one which may have far-reaching consequences for the Emerald now that Robotnik knows of me. I exposed myself, my sacred responsibility and the legacy of my ancestors, all for you. I risked everything because … because I love you."

Bunnie felt like she'd swallowed something too big for her throat. She didn't know where this was leading. "Knuckles…"

"I don't know how to deal with how you make me feel, Bunnie – the things you make me do. Inviting you to live on Angel Island, staying away from the Emerald while in Knothole, going down to see if I can help creatures I don't even _know –_ I never would've done any of that before. And I'm not sure it's appropriate for a Guardian to act that way. A Guardian's sole purpose should be devotion to the Master Emerald; that's the way it's always been. Nothing else is supposed to come first."

"What're you sayin'?"

"I'm saying…" He let out another huge breath. "I'm saying I can't trust my own actions when I'm around you. I can't trust myself to make the right decisions for the Emerald and my duty. Tonight just made obvious what I've been worried about for some time now. When I'm around you, Bunnie, I stop thinking like a Guardian. I make rash choices, I act recklessly, and even I can't predict my own feelings. I become _weak_."

"That don't make you weak! That makes you Mobian!"

"I'm a Guardian -"

"That don't mean squat! You're still mortal, you still got emotions. You ain't some robot or a … a _human_ like Robotnik an' Snively."

"Guardians can't be weak!" Knuckles snapped. "They've kept the Master Emerald safe for generations, and I can't be the one to break that chain!"

"You ain't broken it!"

"But I might! You don't understand what kind of position this puts me in, because I know that if I had to do tonight over again, I'd do exactly the same thing! How can I be true to my role as Guardian if I know I'd willingly put myself in danger for you?"

"Knuckles-"

"Bunnie, what I'm saying is … perhaps after what happened tonight I should spend some time away from you. I need to … get my head together."

Bunnie was staggered. His words seemed to corrode a hole in her stomach like acid. "But Robotnik – if he finds Angel island you'd need me there to help you…"

"I've faced threats of invasions before and survived. At least it'd be in the name of the Emerald."

"But I live up on the island now."

"I know. Can you … could you stay in Knothole? Just for the time being. You'd be closer to the fox cub – Tails – and the rest. The Freedom Fighters need you right now. Just like you said they needed you before for this mission." He didn't sound bitter or mocking, but Bunnie injected the emotions in her head.

She drew herself up, hurt and bewildered. "You can't blame me for findin' out you got emotions."

Knuckles turned and looked at her, eyes luminous in the near-dark. "Please, Bunnie."

There was that word again.

Bunnie felt something crumble inside. "If'n that's what you want."

"It is."

She nodded. "Fine. Sally-girl ain't put nobody in my hut, so I'll stay there until you've," she licked her lips, which were suddenly dry, "until you've got your head together."

Then Knuckles said something that meant she couldn't hate him the way she possibly should've. "Thank you."

The crumbling inside Bunnie collapsed completely. "Knuckles hon- um, Knuckles?"

"Yes?"

"I … I love you too."

He stared at her for a long moment. The world around them seemed to grind to a halt, and Bunnie was aware of every hair-root, every whisker, every particle of her being and its relation to him. She wanted to run into his arms, hold his hand, kiss him like the first time they kissed when he came to see her after she nearly died. She'd never thought she would find someone to love her before Knuckles came along. The other Freedom Fighters were her friends and family, and anyone new who met her saw her roboticised arm and legs first, the rest of her second. She'd resigned herself to an unromantic life until the day Sally led a strange red creature she'd never seen before into Knothole, and part of her couldn't bear to go back to that now, after she'd experienced love. Yet a bigger part rooted her to the spot.

"That's the problem," Knuckles said, breaking the spell.

And then he was gone.

Bunnie stood on her side of the bridge for a long time. Perhaps she expected him to come back. Perhaps she just didn't want to go back to Sally's hut and face the music of what they were supposed to do next. Whatever the reason, she stayed where she was, until her resolve broke and the tears came. Then she sat down and cried until she thought she'd burst.

She cried for herself, for Tails, for the entire rotten evening and a tomorrow that would bring only consequences. She cried so much that she didn't hear anyone approach until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jerked her head up.

"It's all right, dear, it's only me." Rosie's smile was sympathetic and kind.

All at once Bunnie felt five years old again, just as lonely and devastated as she'd been when they first fled to Knothole. "Oh, Rosie…"

"Shh, dear, you just let it all out. No good ever comes from bottling things up." Rosie let her bury her face in her shoulder, even though it must've been jarring for her old bones. The consummate motherly type, despite not having any children of her own, Rosie always put her 'younglings' first and now was no exception.

"D-did you hear?"

"No, but I can guess from your reaction that it isn't good news."

"He thinks I'm bad for him. He thinks he can't be the Guardian when he's around me, and that's all he's ever been, so he … he says he can't be around me no more."

"Oh, poppet."

"I ain't got a plum clue what to do, Rosie. I didn't see this comin'."

"No doubt you didn't. Did he say if he'll be back?"

Bunnie sniffed. "No, but he done said this'd just be for the time bein'."

"Then I suggest you just give him his space, dear. I'll admit I don't know your Knuckles fellow as well as I do other beasts, but I _do_ know that he's made an awful lot of big decisions lately. Maybe he just needs time to catch his breath. He's male, and males are funny – they need breathing room sometimes, and all you can do is keep your distance until they're ready to talk again."

"But what if he don't come back? What if he decides bein' the Guardian is more important than what we got together? Rosie, I ain't never felt this way before about nobeast. On top of what happened to Tails, I reckon my heart'd just about break in two if'n Knuckles decided Guardianship's all he got room for in his life."

"Does he love you?"

"He said he does."

"Then trust him to make the right decision. The more important issue right now is whether you love him."

"My stars, of course I do!"

"But do you love him enough to let him make his decision?"

"I … yes. I do."

"Well then, there you are, dear."

Bunnie stared over the bridge to the Great Forest and hoped with all her might that Rosie was right.

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	9. Enormity

* * *

**7. Enormity**

* * *

Sally felt crippled by the magnitude of their problems. After Bunnie and Knuckles ran out, and Rosie excused herself to follow them, she found herself facing a severely depleted Freedom Fighter group plus one irritable duck. Cornelius spent a few minutes answering their questions before also leaving, upon which Sally regarded Rotor and Antoine.

"I guess the mission was a real bust, huh?" said Rotor.

"Not entirely," Sally replied. She wanted desperately to see Tails, but knew they should finish this first while things were still fresh in their minds. "We did gather a lot of useful data about Robotnik's newest project, and we learned that those factories aren't actually factories."

"We did?"

"But Robotnik is being called them 'factories', my princess," Antoine pointed out.

"I think that was to throw us off the scent, to make us believe there was nothing special there we should want to look at, but it was a pretty pitiful attempt to dissuade us. You'd think Robotnik would give us a little more credit than that by now." She unclipped NICOLE from her boot and laid her open on the table. "NICOLE, visual imaging of Quantum Transporter schematics."

"PROCESSING, SALLY." NICOLE projected a series of squiggly lines, squares and trianges into the air between them.

"What is being that?"

"This is Robotnik's latest scheme to wipe us out."

"Is it?"

"I think so. It's what every other scheme has been since we scuppered his Doomsday Project." Sally was still secretly proud of how their destruction of the prototype, alongside the Wolf Pack, had discouraged Robotnik from attempting a large-scale dispersal of his Doomsday machines. Yet now the victory felt hollow.

Rotor scratched his chin. "What's a Quantum Transporter? Does it have anything to do with what he was getting from the Etheric Region?"

"As a matter of fact, it does."

Antoine blinked. "Have we been figured out what is being this Atmospheric Region? I am thinking that I have missed this before. Please to explain pour moi, my princess?"

"It's Etheric Region, Antoine, and -" Sally broke off at the door opening.

Bunnie's eyes were red and swollen and Rosie's arm was clamped protectively around her shoulders. There was no sin of Knuckles, and Sally felt fresh anxiety for her friends blossom. Yet there wasn't time or opportunity to find out what had happened, as Bunnie slipped back into her seat and asked what had happened in her absence.

"Are you all right?" Sally asked instead of answering.

"I'm finer'n frog's hair, Sally-girl, though I'm tired as a one-legged mule in a butt-kickin' contest."

Sally conceded they were all tired and resolved to finish this quickly. Whatever Robotnik had planned, they were in no fit shape to deal with it now. Tonight would have to be for licking their wounds and reorganising their forces. Tomorrow there would be time for planning how to scupper this newest development in Robotropolis. At least the fight in the factory had damaged the Quantum Transporter's machinery. Perhaps that would buy them some extra time.

"Shouldn't Sugar-hog be in on this?"

"I'll go by and tell him afterwards. I wanted to see Tails anyway."

"I … would you tell the lil' guy I'm mighty sorry about what happened? I'd go myself but … I really need some time alone. In the mornin' I'll explain why. He's a good kid. He'll understand."

Sally sighed and ploughed on. "We thought the Etheric Region was a place on Mobius, but we were wrong. It actually refers to planes of reality. The Quantum Transporter we saw tonight – that's what Sonic and Knuckles fell into and what you damaged when you fell, Bunnie – is for transferring matter between those planes."

"Say what?" Bunnie frowned.

"I am to be agreeing with Bunnie," said Antoine, mimicking her accent, "Say what, my princess?"

"In Layman's terms, it's for moving things between dimensions."

Rotors eyes grew round. "_Dimensions_. You mean other worlds?"

"Exactly. We've always known that Robotnik and Snively are the only humans on Mobius, and before now we've hypothesised that they may have come from another world. It was too long ago for any of us to remember, but I remember you once telling us Rosie about how they suddenly turned up at the cast one day seeking shelter."

Rosie, who occupied Knuckles's seat, nodded. "Indeed they did, dear. Such strange creatures they were, like hairless monkeys, but your father was so big-hearted he let them stay and they repaid his kindness by working for the Science Ministry. Only that Julian fellow – I never did like him, too smarmy for my tastes – proved to have some talent for inventing war machines. Those dreadful things put paid to invasions in quite a few of the more far-flung fiefs, so he moved across to the War Ministry and, well, the rest is history. It was never very clear where they came from, though there were rumours. Some said they came from the far mountains at the very edge of the Endless Sea, others said they'd been conjured by Naugus, the court mage, and that he did so by accident. When asked, Julian only ever said they were refugees. It plucked enough heartstrings, and apparently he answered your father's questions well enough that there was no suspicion."

"Magic has always been a part of the House of Acorn," said Sally. "It stands to reason that my father would accept an explanation of Robotnik and Snively getting here using magic, but if they did, I don't think Robotnik was the one controlling it."

"What makes you say that, Sally-girl?"

"The fact that he's using science to try and break into other dimensions now. If he had control over magic he'd be suing it again, or have used it before now."

Bunnie nodded. "I can see that. So _why_ now?"

"Who knows? I didn't have time to download that information if it was there, but I did get enough to know that Robotnik's been trying very hard to access other planes of reality and bring things across from them into our world. He hasn't been successful yet, so I don't know _what _he intended to bring over, you can bet it won't benefit _us_."

"No doubt," Rotor said emphatically. "Do you think it could be weapons?"

"That's one possibility. Another is other humans."

Thick silence descended as they processed this possibility.

"More Robotniks," Bunnie murmured.

"More Snivelies," Rotor added.

They all shuddered at the thought.

"I am not liking either of this too muchly," Antoine declared.

The meeting broke up after this, since Sally had no more information to give out that wouldn't led to lengthy discussion, and each of them was yawning and trying to hide it. She dismissed them all to bed, slightly surprised when Rosie led Bunnie away to stay in her hut with her for the night. She'd thought Bunnie would stay in her own hut with Knuckles, but realised that Knuckles was not staying in Knothole tonight. She wanted to ask Bunnie what had happened between them, but her desire to see Tails was too great – as was her desire to see Sonic.

Though she would rarely admit it, Sonic had turned into Sally's rock. She felt she needed to touch base with him before she could even think about retiring for the night, for her on peace of mind as much as to keep him in the loop. Thus she walked briskly to his hut and rapped on the door.

"Yo," Sonic said from within, "it's open, dude."

"Hi, Sonic."

"Sal!" Sonic swallowed the last of his chilidog and gave her a thumbs-up. "What's shakin'?"

"First, how's Tails?" She couldn't see him around and assumed he was in the spare bedroom he sometimes used when not sleeping at her place or Rosie's. Tails had long since adopted a rotation sleeping schedule, dividing nights between the huts of others – though most often between these three. Nobody much minded, and it made him feel better. Sally often felt Tails missed the idea of blood family more than the rest of them because he'd never really know what it was like to have a mother or father. He missed the _idea_ of blood family, which made him extra attached to the makeshift one he'd found in the Freedom Fighters and Knothole.

"Sleeping," Sonic replied. "He's tuckered out. Tonight really took it out of him."

Sally sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "I shouldn't have let him go."

"Hey, chill, it wasn't your fault. It could've happened to anyone."

"But it didn't happen to anyone, Sonic, it happened to him, and it happened because I let him come along when he wasn't ready."

"The big guy's been ready for a long time, Sal. This was an accident, plain and simple, and no amount of training can replace good luck." Somehow when Sonic said this it sounded more believable than when she tried to convince herself.

"Sonic, this wasn't some near-miss or scraped knee. Tails was _blinded_ tonight."

"Only in the one eye."

"How can you say that?!"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"I … I don't know."

"His other eye's fine, and Corny gave him some painkillers that knocked him right out. I already know you'll just bite my head off if I try to say it was an accident and you couldn't prevent it. You're all about blaming yourself, Sal."

"But -"

"Have a chilidog. It'll relax you." He zoomed to his kitchen, where a plate of the snacks sat on the counter, and zoomed back to push one under her nose.

Sally pushed it away again. "No, that'd just make me throw up."

"You got no taste, Sal." Sonic shoved it whole into his mouth.

"And you have no manners." How easy it was to slip into comfortable banter with him. Sally reminded herself why she was there. "I still feel responsible -"

"Then don't."

"It's not that easy, Sonic."

"Do what I do and go for a run, then, if you've go time to worry, then you've got time to run."

She shook her head. "You're incorrigible."

"If I knew what that meant I might get insulted. So what's the haps with the debriefing? The hedgehog needs to be in with the loopage."

Briefly, Sally explained about the Etheric Region and Robotnik's Quantum Transporter.

"You mean that glowy thing me and Knucklehead fell on mgiht've zapped us to another dimension? Man, he was right about needing to get outta there. Uh, don't tell him I said that."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Say what? Be kind, rewind."

"For some reason he left tonight. Without Bunnie," Sally added with emphasis.

Sonic's expression darkened. "He did, huh? You know, I always had a bad feeling about that guy. His eyes are too close together and his nose sticks out too much, plus there's the whole red thing. Never trust red when you can have blue."

"Sonic -"

"What? You wear blue."

"That's – look, just don't say anything to Bunnie, okay? We don't know what happened and she seemed pretty upset, but something tells me this isn't a permanent arrangement."

"What makes you say that?" Sonic asked petulantly.

"Because I know Knuckles, and I know how much he cares about her. If he left her behind, then he had a really good reason and didn't do it lightly."

"I'll bet he didn't do it lightly." Sonic rubbed absently at his backside. "He landed on me when we fell. That guy weighs a tonne."

"So will you if you keep eating chilidogs late at night."

"Hey, when you've got a fast metabolism like mine, you're always lean and mean."

Sally smiled. It felt like an age since her last one. "Not so mean."

"That depends. I don't feel like being nice to Knucklehead right now."

"Now don't you go running off and doing something stupid."

"No, that's his job."

"I think I did overreact about that. But it's a little late for apologies now."

"Don't stress, Sal, things'll turn out all right in the end."

"I wish I had your confidence," she admitted.

"But then what would you need me for?"

"Good point. I guess you are good for something." Sally stifled a yawn. "I'll just look in on Tails and then go to bed. It's been an eventful day."

Sonic shrugged. "Sure, knock yourself out. I'm not done with those chilidogs yet."

Sally rolled her eyes and padded to the door of Tails's room to the tune of Sonic chomping away. Even though she knew Tails would be deep asleep she entered quietly and stayed in the doorway.

He looked peaceful, but the bandages wrapped around his eyes were a stark reminder of the seriousness of his injuries. Sally wondered how they would all deal with this. True, as Sonic had said Tails had lost only one eye, but losing half his sight was going to be a big blow. He would have to learn to function with limited vision, and at least at first he'd be in terrible pain, plus he'd be scarred. You could never tell how someone would react to disfigurement, especially of the face.

Fresh guilt suffused her, but she shook it away in favour of more practical thoughts. While the bandages were on, Tails would need a seeing-eye buddy. She'd construct a roster in the morning before gathering everyone together to plan their next move against Robotnik. Whether Tails would be included in that stage … Sally bit her lip. She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

"Hey, Sal," Sonic called as she made to leave.

"Yes, Sonic?"

His serious expression was tempered by the smell of chilli and crumbs around his mouth. "You know you're a great leader, right?"

"Sometimes I wonder."

"Well don't. you ot me, you got your friends, and we all believe in you – even Tails and Knucklehead. You know what Tails said as Corny was giving him his shot?"

Sally was afraid to ask. "No, what?"

"He said he hopes you don't think this was your fault and try to stop him being a Freedom Fighter. The kid's tough, Sal. He's been lost in Robotropolis, come out hurt, and _still_ wants to go back in. Not even we were that brave at his age."

"I suppose…"

"I know that face. That's your 'I don't believe you' face." He slung an arm around her waist. "Don't sweat it, okay? We'll be all right. It's what we're good at."

* * *

Snively had learned there were different types of smiles in his uncle's repertoire, but unlike most people's, none came from joy or true happiness. When Robotnik smiled the world trembled and skin tried to crawl off the body and into a corner to hide.

The smile currently splitting his face was one of satisfaction and humourless pleasure. He tapped his fingertips together, looking over the top at the contents of the Quantum Transporter pad. "It would seen the _hedgehog_," he seemed almost to hesitate over the word, as though just saying it made him nauseous, "has actually done me a favour. How I do love irony."

"Sh-shall I red-alert a SWATbot team, sir?"

"No, I don't think that will be necessary, Snively. We don't want our guests to feel too threatened, after all."

"We don't, sir?"

"Why no." Something in Robotnik's voice made Snively uneasy. Not that he ever felt calm whe he spoke – far from it.

Snively never used to have a nervous twitch. He used to have hair, confidence and ambition, but life on Mobius had robbed all of it. now he stooped, fawned and was only able to rebel through muttered comments and dreams of torturing Robotnik. Every day he cursed throwing in his lot with Uncle Julian and being sent to this accursed place because of it. Had he had the sense to work his way up the ladder of command instead of try to topple those in power he may have been a wing-commander by now. Instead he was a lowly underling, treated worse than the ever-disposable SWATbots and trapped on a planet populated by talking wildlife. Yes, irony was indeed a wonderful thing.

"Why don't we want to threaten them sir?"

"Because these may just be our new allies against those ghastly Freedom Fighters."

Snively regarded the two slumped figures. They didn't look all that impressive, and certainly nothing like allies he'd want to be associated with. They looked like refugees from the Acorn coup; those animals who'd tried to flee Mobotropolis and been used as target practise. Perhaps Robotnik saw something in them Snively did not, but the old fool had been making so many mistakes lately that it was easy to categorise this as yet another boob. Robotnik was so obsessed with defeating the hedgehog and his friends that he'd begun neglecting their campaign to widen his influence over the parts of Mobius still outside his control. Snively kept things running, but with bad grace and buoyed only by the thought that he was strengthening what might one day be his own empire. Robotnik was the famous 'big round guy' after all. Even a cruel heart could clog and stop beating when it carried that kind of weight.

"You don't understand the significance of this event, do you, Snively?"

"I confess I don't, sir."

"I'm not surprised; an ignorant little troglodyte like you could never hope to understand the breadth of this sort of opportunity."

Snively ground his teeth, but shrank back when Robotnik turned to face him. "Sir?"

"Did you not recognise Princess Sally's newest ally tonight?"

"Newest … ally?"

Robotnik sighed. "You really should do your research, Snively; then you might've heard of the Guardian of the Master Chaos Emerald – the last echidna on Mobius and keeper of a source of power so immense it could wipe out this little rock of a planet in the blink of an eye. I myself had thought it legend, but now… the possibilities are," he shuddered with delight, "delectable."

Snively also shuddered, but for different reasons. "I'm afraid I still don't understand, sir. What does this 'Guardian' have to do with the Quantum Transporter?"

"If I am correct, the two have everything to do with each other. If I am correct you will understand very soon, Snively."

One of the figures began to stir.

"Very soon indeed…"

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

_

* * *

_


	10. Line of Attack

* * *

**8. Line of Attack**

* * *

Bunnie awoke the next morning and didn't at first know where she was. When she realised, she stuffed her head under the pillow again.

Outside were the unmistakable sounds of Knothole getting up. It'd only been a month, but already she was used to the peace of Angel Island. Knothole wasn't exactly a bustling metropolis, but villagers called to each other, chicken-parrots kept for their eggs clucked for grain, and life stirred noisily into first gear.

"Bunnie, dear?" Rosie said from the doorway. "I have breakfast waiting."

"Mmf."

"I made pancakes."

"Mmf."

"And blueberry sauce."

"Mmf."

"Or there's oat farls in the oven if you'd rather."

"Okay, okay, I'm up." Bunnie removed the pillow and rubbed at her hair. Rosie was one of those creatures who equated hospitality with feeding you. She wouldn't be happy until Bunnie was sat eating, so the quickest and easiest way to get some peace was to go along with it.

Sure enough, once Bunnie had dragged a brush through her hair, combed her fur, fluffed her tail, buffed her arm and legs and examined the result in the mirror, she sat down at Rosie's kitchen table to a waiting plate of steaming pancakes. There was a jug of blueberry sauce, plus a pot of strawberry preserve.

"I do apologise, dear, but I haven't any cream or syrup. I meant to go into the Great Forest and drain some sap to make syrup with, but what with one thing and another it completely slipped my mind, and the terrapods haven't any calves so there's been no milk lately -"

"It's fine, Rosie." Bunnie ladled both preserve and sauce onto the fluffy pancakes and dug in. "My stars, eatin' is fine an' dandy up on ol' Angel Island, but all the fresh fruit in the world can't compare to your cookin', Rosie."

"Oh, you do flatter me, dear." Rosie blushed and brought a steaming ceramic teapot to the table. "Here we are; a nice pot of mint tea. I can't start the day without it." She poured two cups without asking whether Bunnie wanted one and passed it across. Only when she sat nursing her own cup did she ask the inevitable question. "How do you feel?"

"I don't rightly know," Bunnie answered truthfully. "Okay, I guess. Not shiny as a new pin, but I ain't gonna blub into my brekkist, neither."

Rosie nodded. "It'll all turn out in the wash. You'll see."

"I remember you used to say that 'un whenever we'd got ourselves in some scrape."

"And I was right."

"I reckon the best thing I can do is just get on with what the heck ever needs getting' on with. Dwellin' on … dwellin' too much'll make me so crazy you could put my brain in a jaybird's behind an' it'd fly backwards."

Rosie blinked. "Well, yes, quite."

"I'll head on over to Sally-girl's after I finish washin' up here. 'Less there sumthin' you need me to do for you?"

"Heavens, no, if you do my chores what will I have to keep my old bones occupied? Sally already tries to wrap me in so much cotton wool I can barely move. Don't you start trying it as well."

That sounded like Sally all right. Bunnie was reminded of Tails and the pancake turned from fluffy to gummy in her mouth. She swallowed with difficulty and reached for her teacup. "You've been up longern' me. Any word on Tails?"

Rosie shook her head. "He stayed at Sonic's last night. Poor dear expressly asked to go there when Cornelius tried to bring him into my hut."

"I reckon I might mosey on down to see him…"

Rosie smiled sadly into her next sip. "As you think is best, dear."

"You're sure there' nuthin' I can do for you? I don't feel right that I mess up your hut, eat your food an' then scram without so much as doin' the dishes."

"Well … there is something you could do for me, dear, but I'm afraid it's not very pleasant."

"You just name it, Rosie."

"My garden needs fertiliser, and though they do have a terrible habit of eating my rutabaga, the terrapods are useful because while they're around there's always fresh fertiliser available."

"…Oh."

* * *

Knuckles hadn't slept a wink. After climbing a tree to get altitude for launching his glider, and then pacing for hours once he arrived back on Angel Island, you'd think he would be tired enough to sleep. Instead he'd stayed awake, mulling things over without arriving at any satisfying conclusion. When the sun peeped over the horizon his eyes were as wide as they'd been when it disappeared – though a lot drier.

He supposed he should've said goodbye to Sally. She was his friend, after all, but he'd been so anxious to return. Usually when he was preoccupied, spending time with the Master Emerald cleared his head, but this time it'd only seemed to cloud things even more.

The Emerald Chamber was actually the hollowed centre of a chunk of rock, suspended in a cavern deep below the surface of Angel Island. Knuckles had no idea who'd hewn it out, though it was too obviously excavated to be natural. Eons before, a very different breed of Guardians had attached massive magical chains to the edges of the hollowed rock and fastened these chains to the walls of the cavern. They were still sturdy today, each link the size of Knuckles's skull and cast in the muted green light that escaped the Chamber. Over the years lichen had grown over parts of the rock and stalactites knifed from its underbelly, giving the impression of a smaller floating island hovering in the heart of Angel Island itself. The lichen had adapted to throw off its own green light, as though mimicking the Master Emerald. The only way to reach the Chamber was to balance along the chains, or fly, as lichen and ancient gem lit the way.

Passageways outside the cavern led to different parts of the island and were lined with evidence of Knuckles's ancestors: old spears, crude paintings, paraphernalia dropped in the dark and left for another generation to find. Age and memory suffused everything to an almost stifling degree.

It was cool down there; the only sound his own breathing – perfect for meditation.

Yet every step Knuckles took, all he'd been able to see was Bunnie. He saw her face as he'd left it, hurt and confused, but proud. He saw her the first time she came to the island, the first time he met her, her smile and the way she moved, laughed, breathed when she was asleep. He remembered how she came down these tunnels like a gust of wind, blowing cobwebs from the dark corners, and worked her way, hand over hand, across the chains to the Chamber so she didn't fall onto the stalagmites below. Her fearlessness had impressed the Emerald, he'd thought at the time. He heard the comfortable burr of her voice and remembered what it felt like when her ears brushed against him as they kissed …

Knuckles shook his head. There he went again, thinking about her when the Emerald was right in front of him. Even presented with it so obviously he couldn't concentrate on his duty.

There was no escaping it: he'd become beguiled by Bunnie. Her face haunted him, like the retinal image of something incandescent at which he'd stared at too long he carried her with him all the time.

He tipped his head and stared at the Emerald. "What should I do?"

As with every other time he'd ever asked it a question, the huge green stone was silent. Thrice the size of him, it dominated the Chamber, but Knuckles wasn't cowed. He was respectful, as one might be of an elderly relative, but not cowed – he'd known it too long for that. The Emerald was a constant figure. It had always been in his life – it had always been the _centre_ of his life. And now…

How could Bunnie have made him feel so much? That's what he couldn't figure out. It shouldn't have been _possible_. He'd wanted to kiss here there, at the bridge last night, even as he was leaving. The urge had reared up inside of him like a great, disquieting wave. All it would've taken for him to surrender to it was the faintest of signals from her. Knuckles would never admit it, but he was scared at what that meant.

"Did I make the right decision, leaving her behind? I thought I needed time to think, but I've been thinking all night and I haven't got even _one_ answer to show for it. What if I'm right? What if being with Bunnie means I neglect my Guardian duties? I … I still think I love her, so that'd mean living without her even though I don't really want to. But what if I'm wrong? What if I figure out I was wrong, but then _she_ decides she doesn't want to come back? What if she finds someone else? No, wait, that's stupid. She said she loves me, even after I hurt her feelings. Man, I was such a heel. The fox cub was hurt, she was injured, they'd just uncovered a new threat in Robotropolis and I went and loaded my doubts onto her as well." He looked up again, as though meeting the Emerald's eye. "It's good that I'm feeling guilty about that, right? It's not _doubting_ myself, just … um … damn."

Somewhere, a bead of water dripped into a puddle.

"What've you done to me, Bunnie Rabbot?"

* * *

Tails experienced momentary panic when he opened his eyes and the world stayed dark. A few seconds later he remembered what had happened, groaned, and rolled onto his side. Whatever Dr. Quack had given him had left him with a head as thick as Robotnik was wide.

His groan brought a rush of air into the room. "Hey, big guy. You catch the ol' Zs okay?"

"G'morning, Sonic," Tails replied throatily.

"You need some water?"

"Yes please."

Sonic zoomed away to fetch it and Tails slid out of bed. He knew his room at Sonic's better than he knew the Great Forest and felt around for his sneakers and gloves.

His left eye hurt dreadfully, but it was a dull ache, nothing like the sharp pain of the previous night. Tails knew he was lucky not to have lost both eyes – Dr. Quack, Rosie _and_ Sonic had all said so – and even though he knew it would make Sally mad, a tiny part of him was proud of his wounds. They were his first battle-scars, and while he would rather they hadn't been so severe, as long as he thought of them that way he didn't dwell too much on the implications. When Bunnie was first roboticised she could barely walk. Since her transformation was only partial she hadn't the brain implants to properly control her new limbs. It had taken her months just to grip things again, and even more time to grip with the right amount of strength not to drop or crush things. Now you'd never know of her earlier struggles. She'd learned how to turn a disability into a strength, and Tails saw no reason why it couldn't be the same for him. There were all kinds of stories about how losing one sense sharpened the rest, right? He could become Tails, Master Scent Tracker, or Tails-who-can-hear-a-pin-leave-your-fingers.

Yeah.

"You seem to be coping all right," Sonic said when he returned. "How do you feel?"

Tails reached for the glass and drank slowly, trying not to spill. He couldn't feel anything trickle down his chin, and when he gave the glass back to Sonic and rubbed his mouth it felt dry. "I'm okay. Dr. Quack said these bandages would only have to stay on a little while so my wounds don't get infected or anything. After that I get to wear an eye patch. Way past cool, huh?"

"Sure, Tails," Sonic replied in a voice that made Tails flick his namesake in irritation.

"Sonic, don't you start acting weird too."

"Sorry, big guy, it's just gonna take some adjusting to. Nobody knew how you were gonna react when you woke up."

"I'm fine. Honest."

"Sally doesn't think so."

Tails was about to reply, but a knock at the door of the hut cut him off. He heard Sonic's footsteps retreat to answer it, but before he returned Tails caught another, much nearer sound – in the same room, in fact. He turned towards the faint whuffing, breaking out into a smile. He'd know that sound anywhere.

"Hi, Baby T."

Baby T harooed a greeting and Tails moved slowly towards it, hands outstretched so he didn't knock into things. When he neared the window something touched his fingers and he laughed as Baby T wrapped his arm in a stubby trunk, obviously delighted his friend wasn't as dead as he'd seemed last night.

They were still stood this way when Sonic came back into the bedroom.

"Whoa, I didn't realise it was visiting time already."

"Isn't it cool, Sonic? I think Baby T's been here all night outside my window. He didn't even leave to eat or go to the bathroom."

"Not even Muttski was that devoted. You got another visitor too, though this one used the door."

Heavier footsteps followed Sonic's and the floorboards creaked. "Heya, sugar."

"Aunt Bunnie!" Tails turned his head, but Baby T's grip was too firm for him to move from his spot. After nearly losing him, as he saw it, Baby T was not about to let his little friend go so easily.

Bunnie giggled. "Looks like you got yourself a real pal there, honey-bunch. You're right when you say he ain't left your side since last night, but I can't say I'm complainin', as it means I don't have to go near that durn dung-pit."

More civilised than their appearance might suggest, the terrapods performed their ablutions in a designated area beyond the border of Knothole and the Great Forest. Sonic winced at Bunnie's words. "Rosie got you on fertiliser detail?"

"Actually I volunteered, Sugar-hog."

"Man, you _are_ a glutton for punishment."

Tails couldn't be sure, but he thought the air turned a little cool. "You okay, Aunt Bunnie?"

"Finer n' frog hair, dumplin'."

"Would you like to stay for breakfast? Would that be all right, Sonic?"

"Whatever you say, big guy."

"Well that's might nice of y'all, but I already ate. Speakin' of which, I come bearin' gifts."

"So that's what the basket's for," said Sonic.

Tails sniffed the air. "Mmm, that smells like … like honeyed apples!"

"Sure does. I got oat farls an' strawberry preserve in here, too, all fresh-made. An' I do believe Rosie done slipped a flask of sumthin' in here while I weren't lookin'… ngg!" Tails heard the lid pop and Bunnie inhale deeply. "Yeah, I thought so. Knitbone tea."

"What?" Tails thought back to his camping trips with Sonic and Antoine. "Isn't Knitbone tea made from … um … oh, man, I almost remember its name. A plant - little green leaves and white flowers..." He scratched his head and then stopped, the moving fur having irritated the wounds under bandages. "Comfrey! That was it."

"That's my little buddy," Sonic said proudly. "Best student in Knothole."

"Sure is, Sugar-hog. Rosie's all for lookin' to modern medicine in a crisis, but she reckons nuthin' beats a bit of herbology. Comfrey's all about fixin' up what's busted an' makin' y'all feel right as rain again."

"Yeah, but it tastes yucky." Tails stuck out his tongue, and was rewarded with laughter from both of them. Baby T made happy noises and released his wrist a little. Tails took the opportunity to massage some feeling back into it.

"Well, I'd better love an' leave y'all," Bunnie announced. "Here you go, Sugar-hog. Just drop the basket back at Rosie's when you're done."

"Can't you stay a little longer?" Tails pleaded.

"Sorry, dumplin'."

"Phooey."

"Aw, now don't look so purt hangdog about it, sugar. I wish I could stay, but I got me some dung to shovel, an' then I reckon Sally-girl's fixin' to have another meetin' about last night."

"I never got to go to that meeting!" Tails protested. "You've got to stay to tell me what happened. It must be important stuff, or else you wouldn't still be in Knothole today."

The room grew a little chill again. "Sonic'll fill you in on the details, dumplin'. Time an' manure, they don't wait for nobeast, an' I gotta fetch me a shovel from Rotor's shed first."

"Good luck finding one," Sonic remarked.

"Thanks, Sugar-hog. You done filled me with confidence." With that, Bunnie made her excuses and goodbyes, crossed the room to peck Tails on the cheek, and left.

"At least she's not mad at me for last night."

"Why would Bunnie be mad?" Sonic asked with puzzlement.

"You know, how I dropped her on Buttnik's big bald head and all."

"I think you've pretty much paid for that."

"Maybe … but I still feel responsible."

"Man, big guy, sometimes you're way past cool like me, but sometimes you act so much like Sal it's scary."

Tails recalled Knuckles's comment about how Sally and Sonic were his parent figures. He wasn't sure he agreed with it, but there were worse role models. "Where _is_ Knuckles this morning? Did he stay over at Rosie's, too? It doesn't seem very gentlemanly of him to let Bunnie fetch the terrapod poop."

Baby T grunted.

"Sorry, Baby T. Sonic, is there enough food for him to have some breakfast too?" Tails turned his head from side to side. "Sonic?"

"Uh, yeah, big guy, there's enough for Baby T to scarf. I'll just divide it up, get us some cups and junk, and then I'll tell you what went down last night after we brought you in here. There's some stuff you should probably know about so you don't eat your own sneaks."

Tails boggled. "_You're_ worried about tact?" he couldn't stop himself saying.

Sonic harrumphed. "Like I said: sometimes? So like Sal you're _scary_."

* * *

Bunnie apologised to the room at large. "If'n I smell a mite whiffy, y'all can blame Rosie's vegetable patch an' the big ol' rock I tripped over."

Rotor frowned in bewilderment. "But you look like you just took a shower."

She made noises about bad hair days and rutabagas, none of which he could understand, but in a tone that dictated shutting up and nodding.

_Girl things_, Rotor thought. If he didn't understand it was probably something to do with the mysterious 'girl things' Sally and Bunnie used to claim they were talking about to keep the boys' out of their business, and which had since become a byword for the inexplicable.

Bunnie's behaviour was surprisingly normal given how she'd looked last night, all red-eyed and miserable. This morning her smile was only a little brittle and she acted more like the Bunnie he'd grown up with.

Rotor soon forgot about his puzzlement as he immersed himself in the meeting. Sally had called all the Freedom Fighters together after morning chores, but intercepted Rotor before he could begin his. Consequently he'd brought with him a small water balloon and a phial, each filled with green liquid, and awaited Sally's cue.

It came after she'd recapped what happened on the mission – though in truth nobody could forget it. Knuckles had no permanent chair, but it was strange to see Bunnie without him, and everyone noticed how Sally skirted around claiming responsibility for Tails's injuries without outright saying it was her fault. Sonic picked her up on this, and there followed a brief but furious argument over whether any of them could've done anything to prevent it. In the end it was Antoine who bought the meeting back to order, surprisingly everyone by standing up and banging his fist on the table.

"Yowch!" he whimpered, holding his hand. "Ahem. Um, I am wanting to be saying, my princess, that it is uselessness to be debating what is happened now. I could be saying it was my fault, you could be saying the same, we are all being honourable and getting nowhere slowly, oui? Perhaps the best thing we are to be doing at this junk-shop is to be thinking up what we must be to do next, n'est pas?"

"I think y'all mean juncture, Sugar-twan."

"Ah, oui, merci beaucoup, Bunnie."

Sally sighed. "Bizarre as it is to say it, you're right, Antoine."

Antoine swelled with pride.

"Should I get a pin to pop your fat head, Ant?" Sonic sniped.

"You are just jealousness you did not braise it so skilfully, hedgepig."

"Phrase it, Ant. _Phrase it_."

"Is what I have done. Are you being deaf as well as stupid?"

"Aaand we're back to normal." Sally rolled her eyes. "If you two have finished trying to out-macho each other, Rotor has something to show you."

Antoine, Sonic and Bunnie leaned forward to hear. Rotor flushed, but swallowed his embarrassment and presented the balloon. "We all know that whatever Robotnik's planning to bring through that Transporter, it won't be good news for us. So far he hasn't been successful, and we intend to keep it that way using these puppies."

"Uh, Rote?" Sonic eyed the balloon sceptically. "I hate to rain on your parade, but I don't think Buttnik's operation'll be fazed by a water fight."

"Gotta agree with Sugar-hog, though I'd dearly like to dunk Robotnik's head an' shrink that evil brain of his."

"He will be fazed when the water inside these things melts the metal in his Transporter. No metal means no machines, no machines means no interdimensional travel, and that means -"

"We know what that means, Rote, but back up a second. Melt the metal?" Sonic made a twirling motion with his finger. "Be kind, rewind."

"You remember those metal-melting plants we discovered in the Jungle when the terrapod herd first came through here?"

"Sure I do. Sal brought back the seeds, but there hasn't been enough time for them to flower yet. Right?"

"Wrong," said Sally. "It took a while to find the right soil – they need a much more alkaline composition than occurs naturally in the Great Forest – but NICOLE and I finally got it right and we harvested our first crop last night."

Sonic narrowed his eyes. "Instead of sleeping?"

Sally looked embarrassed.

"Sally-girl, I thought you promised me when I left that y'all wouldn't pull no more all-nighters," Bunnie admonished. "It ruins your complexion, adds wrinkles like nobody's business, not to mention the damage it does to the condition of your fur – plus you can't be firin' on all cylinders if'n you ain't got the proper number of Zs under your belt."

"Oui, my princess," Antoine added. "You are not to be spoiling your ravishing beauty by losing sleep over this _shrubbery_."

"This 'shrubbery' may be the deciding factor in our war against Robotnik," Sally replied, a trifle tersely. "Since the beginning, Robotnik's greatest advantage over us has always been his technology, and the fact he has so much over it over so much territory."

"We can't plant the new crop of seeds in Robotropolis, Sal," said Sonic. "We already tried introducing plants back into that dump. There's too much poison and not enough soil."

"We're not going to waste them by planting them."

"Excuse me?"

"I've been working on converting the sap into a solution we can use as a weapon," Rotor explained.

"Hence the water balloons," Sally finished. "If you'd do the honours?" She passed across a piece of rough-edged metal, obviously liberated from the remains of some vehicle in Robotropolis. The word 'taxi' was just visible under the soot.

Rotor uncorked the phial and dripped a little of the liquid onto it. The sheet crackled, its surface bubbling, and dissolved into a cloud of green smoke and ash.

Bunnie's eyes rounded, and she removed her hands from the table to set them in her lap. "My stars!"

"Oh, I get it." Sonic's tone bespoke the sound of the other sneaker dropping. "We throw a couple of these things at his Quantum Transporter thing and blammo! No more quantum transporting."

Sally nodded. "That's the idea. The only real problem is that we have to get close enough to the Transporter to use them, and after what happened last night …" She left the rest unsaid.

"We're not gonna start this again, are we?" Sonic asked. "Tails says he's fine. He was even mad you made him stay with Rosie instead of letting him come here."

"Until he's properly healed, Tails is off active duty as a Freedom Fighter," Sally said emphatically. It was her Princess Voice, which she very rarely used.

Sonic raised his hands, both palms outward. "Hey, chill, I'm just saying."

"And _I'm_ just saying that if we're going to put a stop to Robotnik's operations before they can do any serious damage, we need to plan ahead – _thoroughly_ this time. I don't want any more injuries or near-captures or … or whatever. Anything that happened last night _stays_ last night." At once she winced and everyone studiously avoided Bunnie's eyes.

"If this is how Tails feels then I understand why he's so ticked off," Bunnie muttered. "It's okay, y'all don't hafta dance about on eggshells. Knuckles went back to Angel Island because he's havin' … I guess you could call it a crisis of faith. Or duty. Or sumthin'. But we ain't in the short rows yet, so there ain't no need to act like I'm heartbroken or nuthin'."

"Short rows?" Even after years of living alongside her, Bunnie's southernisms still confused Rotor sometimes.

"I know this one!" Sonic said triumphantly. "The short rows in a field of corn are the ones at the end, right? The ones you get to last when you're harvesting."

"Right you are, Sugar-hog."

Sonic breathed on his knuckles and buffed them against his chest. "Oh yeah, this hedgehog is red hot. Super cool speed _and_ brains."

"Oh brother. Bunnie, you're sure you're okay?" Sally's expression was one of earnest concern. She was always so fixated on others' problems, as if by solving theirs she could make a dent in her own.

Bunnie obliged her by giving a thumbs-up. "Finer n' frog hair."

Antoine rubbed reflectively at his chin. "You are to say this much often, Bunnie, but I think you do not understand what you are meaning. You see, frogs, they have no hair."

Bunnie chuckled. "You're a real card, Sugar-twan."

"I am?"

"But getting' back to the matter at hand, I assume y'all got a plan. Sally? Rotor?"

"Don't look at me," Rotor said. "I just invent stuff. I can make these things to order but I can't strategise on how best to use them – though I _can_ speculate on the type of range, which is about ten feet if you're interested. You could go for twenty feet at a push, but you'd have to be a good shot."

"Hey, don't worry, Rote. This hedgehog can do ten feet, no problem. The fewer of us who have to go back into Robotropolis, the better."

"I reckon I could toss a few from twenty feet an' be accurate." Bunnie made a fist with her metal hand and nobody saw fit to argue with her. "So long as the balloons don't leak none. I like havin' all my fingers."

Sally nodded. "That's good. If we limit it to just the three of us we should be okay. Sorry Rotor, sorry Antoine, but it might be best if you two sit this one out."

"I am disappointment, my princess, but I am resolved to it," Antoine said, fooling nobody.

"You can still help by being my assistant, Antoine," said Rotor. How many of these things do you want, and by when, Sally?"

Sally exchanged looks with both Sonic and Bunnie. "As soon as possible. Robotnik will have set more guards and security around the factories. The one Sonic and I checked out had a lot of equipment in it, presumably as back-up for if anything happens to the actual Transporter. So … how about tonight?"

"Won't he be expecting us?" Sonic wondered.

"Perhaps, but the longer we leave it, the harder it'll be to get access and the closer Robotnik will be to making it _work_."

"And the last thing we want is more humans on Mobius," Rotor said darkly.

"You got that right," Sonic agreed. "So tonight it is. Reckon you'll still be around by then, Bunnie?"

"I reckon I'll make time for whoopin' on up on Robotnik's patoot, Sugar-hog, even if it hairlips every cow on Mobius."

Sonic blinked. "Okay, now you're not even using real words."

* * *

It was hours later when Sally finally summoned the courage to see Tails. Looking in on him while he was asleep was infinitely easier than poking her head around the door and having him flick an ear in her direction.

Tails was smiling as he turned to face her. His bandages were bright white, a stark contrast to the red-soaked navy strips from Antoine's uniform, and there was a plate of unfinished sandwiches on the table in front of him. "Who's there?"

"It's me, honey."

"Aunt Sally!" His smile grew wider and he pushed back his chair. "I've been waiting for you to arrive. I wanted to show you something."

"You did?" It wasn't the reaction Sally had been expecting – though in truth she wasn't sure _what _she'd been expecting.

"Uh-huh. C'mon." Feeling his way, and in so doing making Sally's heart wrench, Tails made his way out the door of Sonic's hut and down the steps to the dirt where he liked to play hockey. He kept one hand on the rail and used the other to blow a shrill whistle.

Almost at once Sally heard thunderous beats, like a platoon of horse-guards from her father's security force. Baby T rounded the corner, skidded, and came to a halt so close to them the breeze blew all the hair from Sally's face. She blinked away what dust had blown into her eyes and watched, surprised, as Tails half-climbed and was half-lifted onto Baby T's back.

"Cool, huh? We came up with it as a way for me to get around while my bandages are on."

"We?"

"Friends … help … friends…"

"What -" Abruptly Sally noticed the collar around Baby T's neck. She hadn't seen it since the terrapod herd first encountered the Freedom Fighters, but she would've recognised it anywhere. "My translation device!"

"Yeah, we … I sort of borrowed it. Are you mad?"

Sally took one look at Tails's face and shook her head, then flushed as she realised what a useless gesture it was. "Of course not. It was a really good idea you had."

"That we _both _had," Tails corrected.

Baby T made a noise somewhere between a bleat and a purr and reached out to touch Sally's shoulder. It was light and felt almost like a hug. Sally was surprised at how much she felt Baby T was trying to reassure her.

She smiled. It hurt a little, but not as much as it might've. "You're a shining example of friendship to the rest of us."

Baby T's hug turned into an even lighter cuff. "No … tease… not nice."

"Yeah, Aunt Sally, you shouldn't treat us like we're little kids."

Sally refrained from pointing out the obvious, instead opting for an innocuous, "I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't be that, either!"

"Excuse me?"

"You always think that, when things go wrong, it's your fault, and I'll bet you think that about my eye, too. I'm only gonna say this once, Aunt Sally – this was _not_ your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault, except maybe Robotnik's. With all the stress that goes on around here, you need to stop creating more for yourself. Just chill, like Sonic."

"If I chill like Sonic we'd never get anything done."

Tails made a face. "You should still chill."

Sally sighed. "I'll try. How's that?"

"Not what I was hoping for, but don't worry. We'll wear you down eventually."

"Stop giving me things to look forward to."

"C'mon, Aunt Sally, I'm sure you got into all kinds of trouble when you were a kid."

A small voice inside Sally wanted to shout that she still _was_ a kid, but she knew it was wrong. She wasn't anymore, not really – not in the ways that counted.

"Sonic says you were a real wild child."

"He said that?"

"Well … kinda. He said you were a lot more reckless back then than you are now, and he had to bail you out of it all the time."

Sally's mouth dropped open. "_Sonic_ said that about _me_? That … that hypocrite! I'll tie his tail to his ears."

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	11. Interlude: First Meetings

* * *

**Interlude: First Meetings**

* * *

_The iron-brougham bumped and juddered as it skidded to a halt. Sally was shaking when she pulled out the key and the engine stopped. She might've left it running, since she had no idea where she was or whether she'd have to make a quick getaway, but she __**did**__ know crashing couldn't be good for it and didn't want to survive all this just to die in an explosion. Horrible silence filled the air and loneliness ripped through her until all she wanted was to get out of the little craft. _

_She had to stretch to open the hatch door. Outside the air was clear and the sun warm. All around were trees and scrub bordering the patch of sandstone she'd used as an impromptu runway. The stone was deeply scarred, since she hadn't put down the landing gear, and the birds in the trees had set up a racket that showed no sons of stopping. _

_It looked pretty uninhabited, like those times Rosie had taken the kids of court out of Mobotropolis and into the Great Forest. Sally had thought she was flying too high to descend to land so quickly, but the soil under her feet proved she was wrong. For once, though, she was glad to be wrong – though she'd never admit that to Sonic. _

_Sonic. It was his fault she'd done this. He'd put the idea into her head that Daddy loved being King more than he loved her, and it was Sonic who'd challenged her to fly off in one of Minister Julian's little flying broughams, just to prove Daddy would come and save her instead of sending his guards. Sally had only been five minutes into the flight before deciding she didn't like flying without an escort, but the control pedals had been too far to reach, and by the time she'd turned around she was disoriented by all the clouds and had no idea how to get home. The broughams were too small for elaborate navigation systems, since they'd been designed only as light 'run-around' aircraft for the rarefied ladies and gents of court. The radio was busted, too. That was why it'd been in the repair shop where she had easy access to it. Sally could've been anywhere, with no way of getting word back to the palace. _

_She fought the urge to cry, instead channelling her panic into anger against Sonic. Stupid Sonic, always daring her to do dumb stuff. Stupid Sally herself, for accepting his challenges even though they rarely went right. Sonic had a way of constantly landing on his feet that she envied like crazy. _

_What to do now? She could set off walking and hope she ran across someone, or shout for help, or-_

_A flash of movement caught her eye. Sally turned and saw what looked like somebody in the bushes. "Excuse me," she called, forcing a tremor from her voice. "Could you help me? I'm lost and my vehicle's been damaged. I'm not sure it'll fly and I need to get home…"_

_The movement ceased._

"_Hello?" Sally approached the bushes, desire for a friendly face negating her natural suspicion against kidnappers. The Crown Princess, sole heir to the House of Acorn, was a very attractive prize that unscrupulous Mobians had tried to ransom several times before. "Is anybody there?"_

_Sally thought she could hear someone breathing. It was only faint, but enough to keep her stepping forward. "Please, I need some help."_

_A pair of luminous purple eyes stared at her from between the leaves. _

_Sally paused and stared right back. "Hello there. My name is Sally."_

_The eyes narrowed. "You're not an echidna."_

"_A what?"_

"_Where are your spines? And why're you such a funny colour?"_

_Sally glanced at her fur. She'd never thought brown a funny colour before. In truth, she'd always thought her fur rather plain compared to some of the shades at court, especially since her air was also dull. Even Sonic was brighter than her, and he was just a __**boy**__. Boys never cared about their fur the way girls did. "I'm not."_

"_Yeah, you are. And your tail's too fluffy. __**And **__your ears are too pointy and sticky-uppy. You're not an echidna, so what __**are**__ you?"_

_Sally felt affronted. "I'm the Princess!"_

"_What's a princess?"_

_Sally had no answer to this question. Imagine, not knowing what a princess was. "It means that my Daddy is the King, and that someday I'll be queen and rule over our kingdom with honour." She slipped into the royal credo without even thinking about it and clapped her hands over her mouth. _

_Yet the owner of the eyes was unimpressed. "Well I'm the Guardian. Or I will be someday. And this isn't your 'kingdom', it's ou- __**my**__ floating island."_

_Sally's heart stopped in her chest. "__**Floating**__ island?"_

"_Yeah, and you messed it up by crashing that … that __**thing**__over there." The speaker sniffed. "What is that, anyway? It smells like burnt rubber trees."_

"_It's a, um… it's a brougham. __An iron-brougham. You did say __**floating**__ island, right? As in, floats in the ocean?"_

"_No, as in floats in the sky. Don't you know anything?"_

"_Oh…" was all she could think to say. "Oh … my."_

"_Hey, are you okay? You look like my dad did that time he ate poisonberries by accident. I had to fetch racha leaves all the way from the other side of the mountain. Do you need racha leaves?"_

"_I think … I'm more lost than I thought." Sally swallowed convulsively. She wouldn't panic. Princesses didn't panic. They didn't fly off in stolen aircraft either, but there was no point in crying over spilled solar power now. "You said your father … could he help me get home?"_

"_Doubtful. He says we're not allowed to associate with anybody not from the island. If he knew I was even __**talking**__ to you he'd skin me."_

"_So why are you?"_

"_Because you're only small and I could take you in a fight, no problem."_

_The fur rose along Sally's spine. "You could not!" she said indignantly, resentment eroding her panic. _

"_Could too. And besides … nobody's ever come up to the island before. I was curious. Do all ground-dwellers look weird like you?"_

"_I don't kow what you mean by weird. Come out where I can see you."_

"_I can't."_

"_You're already talking to me. It's dumbt to show me what you look like now."_

"_Well … all right." The bushes rustled and a thin red creature appeared. It had spines kind of like Sonic's, but narrower, spread over its skull and stretching to just under its chin. On its chest was a white patch of fur shaped like a half-moon, and it wore mittens with little barbs on the backs. _

_Sally gulped. Suddenly she felt very small and delicate. Despite his thinness, the creature had a wiry quality that reminded her of the Felinoes kept in a paddock in the Royal Menagerie. Drawing herself up, she stuck out her hand. _

_He looked at it. "Huh?"_

"_You're supposed to shake it. Or kiss it, but I'd rather shake. Kissing's soppy."_

"_What's kissing?"_

_She gawped. "Don't you know anything?"_

"_Hey! You can't say that to me!"_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because… because I'm the Guardian, and you're just a stupid ground-dweller."_

"_I thought you said you only would be someday."_

"_I – you - " Years of arguing with Sonic had made Sally well-practised at picking logical holes in others' arguments. Apparently this boy hadn't had the same practise. He spluttered and folded his arms. "Well I'm not shaking your hand now. And you can get off my island, too."_

"_I want to," Sally snapped, but sagged a little. "I just don't know how." Then she looked up at him. He was a little taller than her, though not by much, so she couldn't tell if it was age or that he was naturally built that way. "Aren't you going to ask why I'm flying all alone?"_

"_Of course not. I do stuff without my dad all the time. Do princesses have to have someone holding their hand for everything?"_

_Her lips pursed. He was as infuriating as Sonic! "Who the heck are you, anyhow?"_

"_I told you, I'm the - "_

"_I mean your name, genius."_

"_Knuckles."_

"_Knuckles?"_

" _Knuckles Echidna."_

"_That's a dumb name."_

"_Sally's an even dumber name."_

"_Is not!"_

"_Is too!"_

"_Is not!"_

"_Is too!"_

_Sally suck out her tongue. "Is not times infinity!"_

"_Is too times the Emerald!"_

"_Huh?"_

_Now it was his turn to clap his hands over his mouth. "Nothing!"_

_Sally sighed and shook her head. "Look, can you help me get off this island and back home or not?"_

"_You could jump."_

"_How high up are we?"_

"_Above the clouds."_

_It wasn't an accurate figure, but it was enough to settle that option. "Could your dad help me?"_

"_Ha!"_

"_What's that supposed to mean?"_

"_He wouldn't help __**you**__. He hates ground-dwellers."_

"_Oh." Sally looked despondently at the brougham. "Then how am I meant to get home? My father will be worried about me. He says I'm all he's got since my mother died…" How could she have forgotten that? She'd been so caught up in beating Sonic's challenge that she hadn't even remembered how Daddy would pull her onto his lap while he was in his study and explain to her about maps and other kingdoms, or how he would sometimes come to tuck her bed at night and they'd swap 'walrus-kisses', rubbing noses until she giggled. Tears filled sally's eyes, as a great rush of homesickness enveloped her. _

_The red boy – Knuckles – tipped his head at her. "What's a mother?"_

"_You don't know?" Sally sniffed._

"_Nu-uh."_

"_Mothers are how you get born. They love you and cuddle you and read you stories. Until they die. But they're not really supposed to do that."_

"_Oh." He frowned. "Dad always told me I was born for the Emerald. I know I hatched out of an egg, because there's still bits of it in the back of the caves. He never mentioned any 'mother' thing."_

"_I thought only birds came from eggs."_

"_You mean ground-dwellers don't?"_

"_No, we come from our mothers' tummies."_

"_That settles it. Guardians don't have mothers. They're just for ground-dwellers."_

_Sally wasn't sure that was right. Lady dragons laid eggs and became mothers, after all, but she knew nothing about echidnas and decided to leave it. She had far more pressing things to think about. _

_Suddenly a new voice echoed through the trees. "Knuckles!"_

_The boy's eyes rounded. "That's my dad! Quick, you've got to hide!"_

"_But he'll see the brougham!"_

"_Then get it out of here!"_

"_But I can't fly it now!"_

"_Is it broken?"_

_Sally looked. Actually, it was completely intact, but the landing gear was still tucked inside and she needed that to make it move, even if she did know where to go – which she didn't – or had a runway to taxi down – which she didn't. "No, but I still can't fly it!"_

"_You flew it in here all right."_

"_That was not all right flying!"_

"_Knuckles!"_

_He shoved her towards it. His touch was surprisingly gentle, so she forgot about the barbs, but still Sally struggled. "Maybe if I just talked to him-"_

"_I'll be in big trouble if he catches you here, and so will you. The island is only for Guardians. If anybody ever came up here and he knew it was because of me they'd come …" There was genuine fear in his voice. _

_Sally swallowed. "But … I don't even know the way home."_

"_We floated over a big bunch of squares and rectangles yesterday. Dad called it a cee-tee – Mobo-something-something."_

"_Mobotropolis!"_

"_Probably. Cee-tees are where ground-dwellers live, right?"_

"_Cities, and yes, some grou- I mean, some Mobians do. And that's where my Daddy is!"_

"_Fine, so go there, just get going!"_

"_Knuckles, where are you, lad?"_

_Knuckles glanced over his shoulder. "Hurry!"_

_Sally found herself bundled up the ramp. With a display of strength she'd never witnessed before, especially from one so small, Knuckles lifted the end of the metal walkway and heaved to close it. _

"_Why are you helping me if it'll get you in trouble?" she wanted to know._

"_Because you're kind of nice – for a stinking ground-dweller. Doesn't that make us friends?" He said the word like it was foreign. "I read about friends once. It's where two echidnas get along real well and don't try to claw each other to death. You're not an echidna, but I guess you could be a 'friend' too."_

"_Uh -"_

"_Hide yourself, quick!"_

_He struggled and strained, but worked his way hand over hand down the hatch so that it clicked shut behind her. _

_Sally gulped, but realised she had no other option but to do as he said. She still had the key and put it into the ignition. The engine spluttered, but wouldn't turn over, yet light burst across the controls, proving the battery was still workable at least. At the same time the screen came to life and Sally could see the outside the craft. _

_She watched as Knuckles backed away from the brougham, obviously spooked by the roving eye of the periscope. He startled again when another figure ran from the bushes. This one was taller, and wore a white robe, belted at the waist, that matched the colour of his beard, but in all other ways could've been Knuckles's double. The resemblance told Sally this was the father Knuckles had been so afraid would find her. She shrank back against her seat, despite being hidden inside the brougham. _

_Frantically, she tried to start the engines, all the while watching as Knuckles waved his hands and shook his head at the older echidna. At one point he even stood in front of the craft, but his father cuffed him around the head. Knuckles fell backwards and Sally's heart and stomach lurched as his father marched up and, seemingly without effort, yanked the brougham by its tail. The brougham shrieked as it was dragged to the edge of the island._

_The audio crackled and came on. "No, Father!" Knuckles's tinny voice rang out. "It's harmless."_

"_Any threat to the Emerald must be dealt with," boomed another, deeper voice, full of authority and conviction enough to give whiplash. "If you are to one day be Guardian, you should know this."_

"_But - "_

"_You already deserve punishment for the transgression of not informing me immediately you discovered this craft. You say those inside it died on impact. I will make sure this is true. Ground-dwellers are cunning, Knuckles. They are far more deceitful than your tender years would have you know. You cannot trust them." Knuckles's father spoke in a highbrow, cultured way, but Sally though she understood the gist of his words._

_Her safety-belt saved her as the brougham tipped. It creaked. It juddered. _

_It fell over the edge and plummeted like a stone. _

_Sally screamed._

_Clouds rushed past the periscope. The fur on her cheeks grew wet with terrified tears. Then, miraculously, her final desperate twist of the key provoked a roar from the engines. The brougham pitched to one side as the automatic stabilisers kicked in, but Sally's descent slowed. She gripped the controls despite them being too big for her little arms and hands, too petrified to let go. _

_Only when the brougham's flight path had levelled off did she finally breathe out. Her chest hurt and her throat was raw from screaming, but such relief engulfed her that she felt she might pass out. She was horribly aware of a dampness in the seat beneath her, and suddenly, ridiculously, all she could think about was how Sonic would laugh at her when she got back. Because she __**was **__going to get back. Knuckles had said Mobotropolis wasn't far, and his father had actually done her a favour by putting her back into the air…_

_Knuckles. Sally caught a flash of his face as she'd last seen it. She didn't think he'd meant for her to go over the edge like that, and despite his brusqueness he'd seem sort of nice for a boy. He'd tried to keep her safe, after all, and even if it had been part of his own fear of his father, it was enough for Sally. She shivered when she thought of the huge strength it must've taken to throw the brougham off the island and the talk of 'punishment'. She hoped Knuckles wouldn't suffer because of her._

_She flew for what seemed like hours, her thoughts increasingly occupied by the strange new creatures she'd met and their floating island in the sky. It was as if she __**couldn't**__ think of anything else; as though events had finally taken their toll and her young brain had been shocked into one mindframe, breaking the key off in the lock so she could rattle the bars into the rest of her thoughts but not get to them. _

_When the SWATbots drew alongside the brougham and steered her earthwards, she was barely even aware of it. She'd been so anxious to just get home, back to what was familiar, but when the familiar came to meet her she was to disconnected to recognise it. When they boarded and gently prised her fingers from the controls she stared at them as if in a dream, and wondered whether Knuckles had ever seen a SWATbot, or knew what a robot was. _

"_Landing protocol initiated," intoned one. "Subject identified: Princess Sally Alicia Acorn. Status of search: urgent. Action: return to base. Safety of subject paramount."_

_Images flashed by: an opening hatchway, a chandelier, a warm blanket, a cold nose pressing against her cheek. A tiny figure kept to the back of those who lifted her down from the craft and carried her off, talking in buzzy voices, like a radio smothered in a wet blanket. _

"_She flew it herself?"_

"_What on Mobius…"_

"_The damage is only minor, not even structural…"_

"_She isn't injured, thank goodness."_

"_Where have you __**been**__, Princess?"_

_Been? Where had she been? _

"**You're kind of nice – for a stinking ground-dweller."**

"_Princess?"_

"**Doesn't that make us friends?" **

"_I think she's in shock. No, don't wave your hand in front of her like that. She might have a seizure."_

"**I read about friends once. It's where two echidnas get along real well and don't try to claw each other to death."**

"_Is Sal okay?"_

"_Out of here, young man. The Infirmary is no place for younglings."_

"_But Sal -"_

"_Out!"_

"**You're not an echidna, but I guess you could be a 'friend' too."**

"_Sally? Sally, my darling little girl, please wake up." _

"**I'll be in big trouble if he catches you here, and so will you. The island is only for Guardians. If anybody ever came up here and he knew it was because of me they'd come …"**

"_Please…"_

_All at once Sally snapped back into reality. She opened her eyes, only then realising they'd been shut, and refocused on her father's face. _

_She was in her room, in her very own bed. The blankets were warm with her own body heat and it was dark outside her window. Daddy looked earnest and very, very tired. She got the feeling he'd been sitting with her for some time._

"_Sally! Thank Mobius … I'm so happy you're all right. What were you thinking? Stealing an iron-brougham and going off on your own like that – you were missing for hours. I was positively frantic! Where on Mobius have you been?" _

_Knuckles's anxious face careened through Sally's mind. She sniffed. "I … I'm sorry Daddy. I didn't go anywhere. I couldn't … I couldn't control the brougham properly. I… I just flew around because I got lost. I didn't go anywhere at all. I'm so, so sorry for worrying you, I just wanted to prove to Sonic that…" She swallowed. It sounded so silly to say it now. "… That you love me…"_

"_That was the reason?" Her faher looked flabbergasted. "Of course I love you!"_

"_I know, I just … you're always so busy, and I wanted to prove that you still had time for me…"_

"_I will always have time for you, my darling. You needn't do anything this dangerous to prove that. [promise me you'll never do anything like that again. If I ever lost you…"_

"_I'm sorry." She hugged him and started to cry. "Please don't be angry with m-me. I'm s-sorry-"_

"_Shh, shh, hush now. It's all over. You're home and safe, and that's the main thing." He stroked her hair. "I'm not angry with you. I'm angry at myself that you felt you needed to prove my love for you. I'm our father, Sally. I'll always love you, no matter what."_

"**You already deserve punishment for the transgression of not informing me immediately you discovered this craft."**

_Sally hugged tighter, like she'd never let go. "I love you, Daddy."_

* * *

_To Be Continued…_

* * *


	12. Attack!

* * *

**9. Attack!**

* * *

The bulging balloon flew through the air and burst on impact. The liquid within sizzled and burned away at the metal like a hot knife through butter.

"This stuff is really impressive."

"Sure is, Sugar-hog."

Sonic tossed another balloon from hand to hand. "You wanna come closer and say that, Bunnie?"

"I'm fine over here, sugar. Them balloons make me mighty nervous." She threw her own at the remains of the SWATpod. "I think I'll practise with plain ol' water until I'm certain I can hit a target without splashin' myself."

"You're missing out on all the fun, though."

"I'll cope."

"You gotta be able to use these babies when we go into Robot-town."

"I know. Baby steps, sugar-hog."

Sally surveyed their handiwork. "This certainly makes cleaning up this wreck a lot simpler."

"What we need is one giant balloon and a way to drop it on Buttnik's fat head," Sonic opined. "Let's see Robotropolis operate like _that_."

"If only things were that simple."

Sally was a pretty good shot by now. They'd all started out with water, though when they were surer of their aim she and Sonic had progressed onto the small bundle of metal-eating missiles Rotor prepared especially for this task. Their density was slightly different, but both she and Sonic felt more confident in the planned raid now they'd had some practise – plus the wreck was almost gone. For Sally, seeing it dissolve was like seeing evidence of her own failures melt away. When it was no more, she'd have a chance to make up for them.

"Why can't they be that simple?" Sonic asked.

"Logistics?" Sally tossed her last balloon. "Resources?"

"Besides that."

"Mayhap we should make it that simple," said Bunnie. "These here thingies give us an edge, sure enough. Why not use 'em to our full advantage? Robotnik's no pushover, but I ain't never seen a bird fly so high that it didn't have to come down sometime."

"I like your thinking, Bunnie."

"'Preciate the compliment, sugar."

Sally considered this. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps she was thinking too small. She was so used to making strategic strikes against Robotnik that she'd gotten out of the habit of thinking otherwise, but maybe now was the time for a decisive move. It was true that Robotropolis would still stand, but an empire was easier to dismantle when the tyrant at its head was gone. Likewise, a tyrant was easier to remove if the seat of his empire crumbled.

She opened her mouth to reply, but stopped as a gust of wind suddenly burst upon them. Sally covered her face to stop her eyes from drying out as leaves tore from their branches and swirled around them, and the sound of familiar wingbeats filled the air.

"Hey, it's Dulcy!" Sonic cried. Then his voice changed. "Whoa, it's Dulcy! Quick, take cover, she's coming in for a landing!"

Bunnie cannoned into Sally, knocking her aside as something huge rocketed out of the sky. It rolled over and over across the clearing in which they stood and crashed into the trees on the other side. Branches cracked, mud was flung into their air, and Dulcy's recognisable grunts emanated from the dragon-sized hole in the undergrowth.

"Oh my gosh!" Sally scrambled to her feet and dashed across. "Are you all right, Dulcy? That one was pretty nasty."

"It was gnarly!" Sonic appended, zipping to her side. "At least a 9.5 on the Dulcy Scale of Rotten Landings."

She elbowed him in the ribs and hissed, "Sonic!"

"Ow! What? It was." Raising his voice to call through the hole, he added, "I guess spending so long away made you rusty, Dulce. Welcome home."

Dulcy's head appeared, followed by the rest of her, covered in leaves, dirt and other debris. Yet instead of happy to be home, or even embarrassed at her poor display, she looked alarmed. "I flew as fast as I could," she panted. "I cracked the whip and … everything. You guys … you gotta … oh man, I got a stitch." She held her side. "They're headed this way … hundreds of them …"

Her alarm transferred itself to Sally. "Who's headed this way?"

"I don't know! Lots of tiny … metal … things. Little planes or something, but round. I was headed home when I … when I saw them. I tried to … outrun them, and … and …"

"And what?" Sonic demanded, impatient.

"They shot at me!" Dulcy gestured at the long, angry red burn that traced a line across her chest to her abdomen. The tough scales that formed a dragon's near-impenetrable hide had melted around the wound, and for the first time Sally realised how drawn Dulcy looked in addition to her anxiousness.

Dread gripped her. "Dulcy, quickly, tell us exactly what you saw."

Dulcy took a breath. "They're coming from Robotropolis. I don't know who they are, I've never seen anyone like them before, but they're leading a whole bunch of SWATbots and they're all making a beeline for the Great Forest."

"Robotnik and Snively?"

"No! That's the thing, I don't know who they were, but they have Robotnik's SWATbots with them and they were riding … well, I've never seen craft like them before – like little floating discs with handrails. They're so flimsy looking, they shouldn't even be able to fly, but they're nippy. Boy, are they nippy. Each one has a laser or something – that's what got me."

Bunnie peered with concern at the burn. "You need to sit a spell an' get that tended, sugar."

"There's no time, we need to move fast!"

"But you're hurt - "

"You don't understand – I think they're going to Knothole!"

Sally's dread vanished like someone had flipped a switch, shutting it off at the mains. Instead, all she felt was cold. The practical part of her mind came online and she snapped out instructions. "How far away are they now?"

"Out in the wasteland between the forest and Robotropolis. It'll take them about half an hour to reach Knothole if they fly straight - which they're doing."

"Sonic, take Bunnie and get back to Knothole. Dulcy, I'll fly with you. Can you crack the whip again?"

"They hit my chest, not my tail."

"Can you fly with that injury?"

"Hop aboard."

"Sal - " Sonic started.

"Don't argue, Sonic. Get back as fast as you can. Raise the alarm. The villagers know what to do in the event of Robotnik ever discovering Knothole. They've done the drills. I want you to make sure they get away safely and don't panic or stampede. If these strangers _don't_ find Knothole then we can return afterwards, but I want everyone out of Knothole as soon as possible. Get them to the shelters we built in the Great Forest and make sure they stay there until I give the all clear."

"And what're you gonna do?"

"I'm going to try and head these threats off at the pass. Maybe I can lead them away, if Dulcy's up to it."

"Of course I am!" Dulcy replied. "But we've got to hurry."

Without further comment, Sally clambered onto the dragon's harness. "What're you both waiting for? Go!"

Sonic scowled at her. "I'm leader too, you know. Don't I get a say in this?"

"Do you have a better plan? You can reach Knothole faster. The safety of the villagers is paramount, or are you also going to argue about that?"

"Your safety's important, too - "

"Sonic, please don't do this now."

He looked like he wanted to argue more, but scowled and took Bunnie's hand.

Bunnie's expression was pained. "This sounds a few cards short of a flush, Sally-girl. You're takin' an awful risk -"

"And so are you. The longer we wait, the bigger the gamble, and the stakes are the lives of everyone in Knothole. Now will you two please just _go_?"

Sonic placed Bunnie's hands around his waist, but he was looking at Sally. "You get yourself killed, Sal, and I'll be real mad at you. Hang on, Bunnie, we're going super-sonic."

"Let's do it to it, Sugar-hog."

He revved and blazed away towards the village.

Sally watched them go and tried not to think about how this might be the last time she saw either of them. Crises were defined by how little time they left for the important things to be said.

"C'mon, Dulcy. Let's see if we can't slow them down."

* * *

Sonic skidded into the centre of Knothole in a flurry of dust and loose leaves. Bunnie thumped to her feet a few seconds later, shaking off the wooziness that always followed switching from fast to stationary so abruptly.

"Everybody up an' out," she hollered. "Code Red Alert! This ain't no drill!"

The warning bell rang out, and a second later the rush of dust from Sonic's passing to reach it hit Bunnie full in the face. She coughed and squinted, grit in her eyes, but her acute hearing picked up the sound of doors opening and voices edged in panic.

"Is it really a Code Red?" someone asked. "Has Robotnik really discovered Knothole's location?" The face was all blurry as Bunnie blinked dust from her eyes. She thought it might be Cornelius, but if so he was channelling one of his meeker personalities.

_Good_, Bunnie thought grimly. _We don't need no panic right now._ The village needed to be evacuated completely and fast, and the best way to do that was by being efficient. She was extremely glad for all the times Sally insisted they do drills of this sort of thing – even at three in the morning and in the pouring rain.

"Yo, Ant!"

"My name is not being such an insect," Antoine said snippily.

"Whatever." Sonic grabbed his hand and curled the fingers around the Warning Bell's rope. "Keep ringing this. I'm gonna go hustle everybody."

"But I am being needful of evacuating also-"

"Ring, Ant, or we're all dead!"

The bell was in the very centre of Knothole, while smaller bells fringed the outskirts. The Warning Bell was something the Freedom Fighters once brought home from a raid in Robotropolis. It used to sit in a small chapel in the poorest district, where kits were named and creatures gathered for Winter Solstice. Now it was a symbol for everything they fought for – except at times like this, when it was used for a more practical purpose.

Sonic was a blue blur as he raced between the huts, chivvying villagers and making sure nobody wasted any time. The biggest worry turned out not to be beasts insisting they rescue all their worldly possessions, but the terrapods, who lumbered around honking anxiously and raising their snouts in an unmistakable gesture of fright.

"If we ain't careful, one o' them critters'll hurt somebody by accident," Bunnie said to Antoine over the bell's clang.

He only nodded in reply, arms pumping and feet periodically leaving the floor as the swing of the giant bell tugged him up like a marionette.

"Mayhap I should go an-" She got no further, as at that moment a higher whine cut across the terrapods' hooting and silenced them.

Baby T appeared from around a hut, tail vertical and legs rigid like one wolf alpha challenging another for territory. It was a clearly identifiable show of leadership, and the other terrapods lowered their heads, fell into line behind him and trooped carefully out of Knothole. Along the way, at pips and beeps from Baby T, several of the giant animals scooped up the oldest and youngest Mobians, sitting them high on their backs so the Mobians could cling to their neck-armour and proceed to safety even faster.

As they passed, Bunnie spotted two such passengers on Baby T's back. "Tails?" she said incredulously. "_Rosie_?"

"Hello, dear," Rosie waved, as though going on a picnic instead of fleeing her home. "Isn't it marvellous? And quite comfortable, too. I don't know why I never tried anything like this before."

"Hey, Aunt Bunnie," Tails called, not waving since his eyes were still bandaged and he could tell which direction she was in. Rosie's arms were linked around his waist and both clung on doggedly. "I asked Baby T to help out. Is everything going okay?"

"Uh, like clockwork, sugar."

"Where are Sonic and Aunt Sally?"

Hot guilt stabbed through Bunnie's chest like a knife through butter. "Sonic's around, getting' everybody's skates on. Sally-girl's … bein' Sally-girl. She's with Dulcy."

"Dulcy's back?"

"That's how we knew to get everybody outta this here homestead. Now y'all move along, sugar, an' make sure you get nice an' comfy in the shelters. Do me a favour an' settle any folk who're panicky. Last thing we need right now is some cotton-pickin' hoo-hah of a barney. Don't move 'less one of us Freedom Fighters comes to give y'all the all-clear, y'hear?"

"Right, Aunt Bunnie." For once, Tails didn't argue about staying to fight. It wasn't just his injuries – Tails knew about the escape plans and survival codes. Code Red there would be no fight. Code Red meant survival was paramount as Knothole was already lost unless a miracle happened. A village could be rebuilt with time. Lives could not.

Bunnie thought of this as she looked to the horizon and wondered whether Sally and Dulcy had met the enemy yet.

* * *

Dulcy was right. The tiny craft numbered in the hundreds, at least, and were accompanied by at least as many SWATpods, each piloted by two SWATbots. It was like the entire population of Robotropolis had emptied out for the sole purpose of destroying knothole. If the certainty of their flight path had already verified Sally's suspicions, their numbers would have. Robotnik would never leave his stronghold so unguarded unless he was certain of the location of the Freedom fighters' base.

Yet how had he learned their location? They were always so careful, eradicating any scrap of information that might lead the tyrant to their home and keeping even the briefest mention of knothole's we=hereabouts under wraps once they crossed over the safety borders of the Great Forest. And who were the extra pilots on the hover-board-craft? Had Robotnik gained allies while they weren't looking?

"What do you wanna do, Sally?" asked Dulcy, peering quizzically over her shoulder. They were still far enough away to turn back and still be out of range of any laser-fire.

Sally squared her jaw. "We have to slow them down. That means finding the leading craft. If I know Robotnik, he'll want to see knothole's destruction for himself."

"So we have to find him in all those?"

"You can still go back, Dulcy. I'm not going to force anyone to fight." Not after Tails. Not after what the raid did to him. His face seemed etched onto the back of Sally's eyelids whenever she closed them.

"Are you kidding? How the heck would you cope without me? Nope, I'm here to stay, Sally, I just need you to tell me what I should do next."

Sally flipped open NICOLE. "NICOLE, can you scan those SWAtpods from this distance to find the one containing organic matter?"

"INTEGRATION WITH ONBOARD SENSORS NEEDED FOR SUCH A TASK. POSSIBILITY OF REMOTE COMPATIBILITY BETWEEN MY SYSTEMS AND SWATPOD'S ARE … 95 PER-CENT, SALLY. HOWEVER, RANGE NEEDED FOR SUCH REMOTE INTEGRATION … TWENTY-TWO POINT FIVE FEET, MINIMUM."

"So we gotta get _a lot_ closer to find Buttnik." Dulcy sucked in a breath. "Good thing I've been practising my ducking and weaving as well as my landings."

Somehow, this didn't fill Sally with as much confidence as Dulcy obviously hoped it would.

"Once we've identified Robotnik's pod, you freeze it with your ice breath. Aim for the engines and landing struts. With any luck, it'll drop like a stone and he'll be stranded away from Knothole. It may not stop the invasion, but a serpent without a head is easy to kill."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Dulcy."

"Naw, I'm just messing with you. Now let's get started. Here goes nothing!"

They powered forward. Actually, Dulcy's ducking and weaving _had_ gotten markedly better, Sally noted, as the SWATpods opened fire. She avoided the clumsy strikes like they were slowly tumbling feathers rather than beams of ionic death, spiralling down and then opening her wings to soar up inside their phalanx.

"Scan, NICOLE, scan!" Sally yelled, holding the computer out with one and hand and gripping desperately to Dulcy's harness with the other. NICOLE beeped and buzzed, but three near-misses later they still hadn't located Robotnik and the lasers were firing with more accuracy than before.

Which was when the new craft joined in.

A blast of green laser fire severed the harness pommel Sally gripped. She pitched backwards, gripping frantically with her knees, but lost her balance and tumbled from Dulcy's back.

"Sally!" the dragon bellowed, turning a loop-de-loop in an attempt to catch her, but a second blast of green laser punched into her hindquarters. The accuracy was incredible. In two shots, the green lasers had done what dozens of red lasers failed to accomplish. Dulcy shrieked as she spun off-course trailing smoke and the smell of burnt scales.

Sally continued to fall unchecked. She was clutching NICOLE like the little computer might save her, but without Dulcy there was nothing to stop her meeting her death on the ground far below. Air rushed past her ears, masked only by the pounding of her own heartbeat and frenetic thoughts of the loved-ones she'd never see again if she didn't survive this. Tails, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, Rosie, Sonic -

Sonic…

"_You get yourself killed, Sal, and I'll be real mad at you."_

She couldn't die like this, not after everything she'd worked so hard to achieve-

Suddenly something blew past, flying faster even than she was falling. Sally caught the barest hint of dark green, and then Dulcy's arms were around and stuffing her into her pouch. It was warm and sticky in the pouch, and smelled a lot like old cheese and unwashed laundry, which was why nobody much liked riding in it, but at that moment it was the most wonderful sensation in the world to Sally. Even the marks Dulcy's claws had left on her arms weren't enough to dull the rush of relief that surged through her.

"Thanks, Dulcy."

Dulcy didn't reply, too choked up with pain to do more than fly without also dropping from the sky.

"Stay away from the green lasers. They're far more accurate and powerful than the average SWATpod."

Sally poked her head and right arm out of the pouch, still conscious of their mission to eradicate, or at least halt Robotnik's craft. NICOLE droned as she tried to find a wavelength that matched that of the SWATpods' internal and external sensor arrays, and Sally looked up for a moment to see where they were in the melee. What she saw took her breath away for a second out of sheer astonishment.

"Sally, head down!" Dulcy commanded, veering a sharp left. "Aaaah!"

Three shooters, mounted on the strange new craft, converged on dragon and passenger. With a sound like distant thunder mixed with static, they simultaneously let loose bolts of green laser so intense it lit the surrounding landscape like the brightest halogen light bulbs from Mobotropolis's heyday.

* * *

_**To Be Continued… **_

* * *


	13. Unexpected Enemies

* * *

**10. Unexpected Enemies**

* * *

Bunnie swiped her wrist across her brow. "How we doin', Antoine?"

Since the alert was well-known by now, Antoine had given up ringing the bell to scout for stragglers. "It is all seeming most emptiness, Bunnie."

"I been countin' heads as best I can, but I lost it somewhere around the time Tails an' Rosie went past. Ain't nobody I can recollect not seein', though, 'cept…" A thought turned over in her mind, presumably at the same time it did in Antoine's, because he looked at her with the same sudden alarm. "Rotor!"

They made a beeline for Rotor's workshop, but before they reached it a familiar figure lumbered towards them along the path. Rotor's arms were full of burlap sack, and similar brown sacks hung off each elbow and were strung across his back, weighing him down. Bunnie and Antoine relieved him of three without asking, Bunnie clutching the mouths of two in her metal fist while Antoine struggled with one.

"Oh mon ça alors, Rotor, what are you being having in here?" Antoine wheezed.

"Talk as we walk, Sugar-twan," Bunnie instructed, shoving him forward with her free hand. "Rotor?"

"The balloons," Rotor panted, lifting his cap to shake sweat from his eyes. His fur was slick and daubed in what looked like soot and green slime. "The balloons full of metal-eating solution and the anti-metal plant seeds." He patted a pouch on his belt. It was odd to think that the greatest weapon they'd ever found against Robotnik could get lost in the lining of your coat.

"We gotta pick up the pace, or we'll lose _everythin'_ precious," Bunnie stated, leaving the implications of that hanging. They passed through her meaning like a cloud of cigarette smoke and kept on going, starting to jog as best they could.

They were into the trees when they heard the first shots. Bunnie forced herself not to look back, not to put a memory in her head that she could relive later. Knothole was everything to those who had escaped Robotnik's evil; it represented freedom as much as the Freedom Fighters, if not more. If Robotnik could find Knothole and destroy it, he was dealing a huge blow to the morale, confidence and spirit of everyone who had thought they were safe from him.

"C'est la finition," Antoine murmured sadly. "Nous sommes sur le pavé. He is killing Knothole."

"How did he find us?" Rotor asked, and Bunnie could hear the angry tears in his voice. He'd lost his home, his workshop, all the plans they'd been setting against Robotnik and Robotropolis.

"I dunno, sugar," she replied truthfully, "but I do know we gotta hoof it to the shelters 'afore anybody finds us. We ain't clear just yet. Let's just stay thankful we all made it out alive an' figure out what happened later"

"Buti don't understand. _How_? It seems pretty convenient-" Rotor got no further, for at that moment the trees above them exploded and showers of burnt wood, twigs and leaves rained down on them.

"Take cover!" Bunnie yelled, throwing herself at Rotor to prevent a chunk of oak falling on him. They rolled over and over, and Bunnie heard some of the balloons pop in their sacks. She cursed losing the precious weapons, but Rotor's life was more important. So was Antoine's. she raised her head to call, "Sugar-twan, you okay?"

"Oui, Bunnie, je suis bien." Antoine, still heroically holding onto his sack of balloons, appeared from behind a fallen branch covered in angular leaves. He ducked behind it when a burst of laser fire shot past his head, incinerating a large hole in the trunk of the tree behind him.

"Dab-blame it!" Bunnie swore under her breath. "One of them there SWATpods must've done seen us runnin' away." She yanked open one of her sacks and took out a balloon. It was glossy with spilled solution, so she held it in her flesh hand. She wasn't quite such an accurate shot this way, but she couldn't risk dissolving parts of herself along with the enemy. "Rotor, you take Antoine and get the hip-hip outta here. I'll cover you an' catch up after I'm done."

"We can't just leave you," Rotor started, covering his head as another salvo of burnt tree parts rained down.

"The pod's too big. It's burnin' a path for itself so's it can get to us. That'll give you an' Sugar-twan a chance to outrun it. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll keep these two sacks so's y'all can run faster." And so she could hold off any more pods that might have seen their tails disappearing out of Knothole.

Rotor's eyes were serious, but he was no fool. He knew the wisdom of her words and after a few more seconds he nodded, clambered to his feet and set off at as fast a clip as he could manage. He grabbed Antoine's shoulder as he passed, dragging the coyote behind them so Bunnie could see Antoine's confused expression when she didn't follow.

Bunnie turned to face the pod firing a path towards her. Robotnik's forces must have flown over the Great Forest and down into the clearing that held Knothole, but tracking creatures through the woods themselves was more difficult. The trees around these parts had grown close together, tightly knit so that only small Mobians on foot could comfortable travel between them. It and the lack of beaten path were two of the reasons Sally had elected to put the emergency shelters over this way. Out in the open a SWATpod was deadly, but Bunnie had the advantage out here, having trained and played amongst these trees since she was a kit. She could cripple any comers and high-tail it out of there before reinforcements arrived, ducking and dodging like she was a monkey instead of a rabbit.

Another blast of laser sounded from somewhere, and another, and then a shaft of light poked through the thick canopy. Bunnie heard branches snap and readied herself, watching to see if she could also gain the advantage of surprise. Just because the SWATpod knew someone was down here didn't mean it knew exactly where, nor did it mean she couldn't creep up on it as it descended.

Except it wasn't a SWATpod that descended. From below it looked like a white oval studded with three glowing lights that turned the air beneath them hazy like air during a heat wave. As the oval came closer a handrail appeared, like the front of a running machine, and holding onto it were two figures that made Bunnie gasp and nearly drop her balloon.

"Oh my stars…"

Holding onto the handrail were a pair of echidnas.

* * *

Sonic was getting antsy. "I don't like this. It's taking way to long for them to get here."

"Now Sonic," Rosie cautioned, "Don't you go fretting unnecessarily."

"Who said it's unnecessary? For all we know, the others have already been captured and are on their way to Robotropolis right now in a SWATpod." He hopped from foot to foot, pressing one eye against the viewfinder that poked aboveground.

The emergency shelters had been built by moles and so were subterranean, filled with supporting struts made of durable wood cut and shaped by other Knothole residents. When empty they were cold and draughty, but when they were full to capacity, as they were now, the air quickly turned thick and hot, and not a little rank with the smell of fear and sweaty bodies.

"I know that, dear," Rosie said softly, moving closer to Sonic, "I just didn't think you wanted to start a panic."

Sonic turned to look beyond the old chipmunk, to where Knothole villagers nestled among the struts and cross-pieces. All sorts of beasts had gathered, nestling shoulder to shoulder in ways that would've been unthinkable in the days before the coup: fox and badger, otter and beaver, possum and platypus! Old social boundaries had been torn down by Robotnik's rule and the survivors had drawn together as if for warmth in a blizzard. There wasn't room here to mill about, but the quiet murmuring bespoke a desire to do just that. Nobody knew what had happened; only that the red alert had sounded and now they were here, waiting for … something. Safety or destruction, and Sonic and Tails were the only Freedom Fighters in this shelter. There were other dugouts dotted around, some in this area, some elsewhere, the idea being that if one was discovered it wouldn't be the end for everyone.

Sonic sighed, realising Rosie was right. A panic in such close quarters, with SWATbots and who knew what else lurking aboveground, was the last thing they needed right now. It just frustrated him that he was stuck down here without knowing whether Sally, Dulcy, Bunnie, Rotor and Antoine had made it to the other shelters or were still out there somewhere. His eye had been glued to the viewfinder since he arrived, and he hadn't seen them pass by yet, which only made him worry and want to juice it to wherever they were.

"You're right," he said instead. "How's Tails?" Next to Sal and his friends, Tails was Sonic's biggest concern.

"Coping," Rosie replied. "He was talking to Cornelius when I saw him last."

"Dr. Quack?"

"Not at the moment. He's channelling his daughter Lucy right now. She was only five when she was roboticised, so Tails is keeping him calm by telling him stories of your exploits."

"He is? Wow." Sonic swept his spins from his face even though they weren't even in it. "The Big Guy is sure more mature than I was at his age."

"You won't find any disagreement from me, dear, although you seem to have turned out quite well. The sleepless nights I used to spend worrying about you and Princess Sally, especially when I knew you were sneaking out and I couldn't so anything about it. I used to sit in my kitchen making bread until I heard you sneak back in again. It kept my hands and my mind busy. Very therapeutic, making bread."

So that was why they had so many sandwiches when they were kids. "You knew we were sneaking out?"

"Of course."

"So why didn't you stop us?"

"Would you really have listened to me?"

He thought back to the early days, with the pain of their families still fresh wounds in them. He thought of the Robians who made them determined to fight Robotnik and near-misses that made them careful about doing it – seeing their loved-ones working in the factories, or their names listed on convoys already shipped to distant lands not even Sally knew where to find on the map. "I guess not."

"Experience soon sobered you up, even if it did add a few wrinkles around my edges." Rosie gestured at the viewfinder. "Are they here yet?"

"I thought you said-"

"I never stopped worrying, dear. I doubt I ever will."

Sonic looked at her curiously for a second, before peering through the periscope. "Whoa, incoming!" He grabbed for the fastening that flipped back the hollow tree stump masking the shelter's entrance.

Seconds later he yanked it closed again as Rotor and Antoine staggered inside. They carried suspiciously bulgy sacks and wore matching troubled expressions.

Sonic took one look at them and demanded, "What's wrong?"

"Elle est restée pour combattre un SWATpod!" Antoine panted.

"What?"

"Je souhaite que nous ne l'ayons pas laissée derrière!" Antoine went on, gabbling and puffing so that even the words Sonic did understand were unintelligible. "Elle ne devrait pas seul combattre!"

"Speak English, Ant!"

"Bunnie!" Antoine finally managed. "She is lefted behind."

"You left her behind?" Sonic repeated incredulously. His words were just loud enough to cause nervous mutterings amongst the villagers. Sonic heard and wisely dropped his voice. "What were you thinking?"

"We were being followed by a SWATpod," Rotor explained. "She volunteered to take care of it so we had chance to save the metal-eating solution. She said she'd catch up." His words made sense but his eyes told a different story; already Rotor was regretting the decision.

"What about Sal and Dulce?" Sonic asked, glancing at Tails who was engaging Cornelius Quack in what looked like a very thorough discussion of dolls versus train sets.

"You mean they haven't checked in yet?" said Rotor.

Antoine threw up his hands, or motioned he would have liked to if he hadn't been carrying a sack. "My poor princess! She is too much at the mercy of those fiendish SWATbots!"

Sonic's stomach sank to cosy up with his intestines, but he put on a grim face and squared his shoulders. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was how to be a symbol for those who needed it. right now everyone needed strength, and even if his own throat felt like he'd swallowed broken glass, he couldn't let it show. "She'll be fine. Sal is one tough cookie, and so is Dulcy. They're not stupid enough to take on a whole army alone."

"The girls aren't dumb. They'll all be fine." Sonic wished he felt as confident as he sounded.

"The princess has always been an exceptionally responsible young lady," Rosie commented.

Responsibility. Yeah. Sally would skin him if he left the shelters now, in case he alerted any SWATbot scouts as to their location. Still, the urge to throw back the stump and zoom to the rescue was like a near-physical _ache_ in the soles of Sonic's feet. He grew up with Sally and Bunnie, and had watched Dulcy turn from a tiny, gawky draglet into a bigger, gawky dragon. Dulcy and Bunnie were his friends, Bunnie feeling sometimes more like the sister he never had, putting him back in line and wiping dirt from his cheek. And as for Sally … If anything happened to those three, Sonic knew, he would never forgive himself.

Yet for years now their first priority had been Knothole and its people. Sonic looked around again, noted how many old, young and infirm were in here with him, trying and failing to calculate the number in the others shelters too. These creatures depended on him and the Freedom Fighters to keep them safe from harm. Their security and Robotnik's defeat had occupied Sally's head for so many years it was a wonder she had room in there for anything else. Now she'd put herself in danger for them once again, and it was up to Sonic to hold down her precious fort while she was missing.

Missing…

"I'll give it fifteen minutes," he muttered. "If they aren't in a shelter by then, I'm going out after them."

Nobody within earshot saw fit to argue.

_**To Be Continued…**_


	14. Tragedy Strikes

* * *

**11. Tragedy Strikes**

* * *

"Sir! Sir!" Snivelly was apoplectic with joy and barely hiding it. "Sir!" he said once more into his communicator.

"What is it Snivelly?" Robonik's deceptively laconic voice came back.

"Sir, the princess sir, she's – ahahahahaaa! – she's, sir, she's-"

"Stop wasting my time, Snivelly," Robotnik snapped. "What about the princess?"

"She's _down_, sir! Shot out of the sky!"

"Dead?"

"We're, ah, looking into it now, sir. But she took a direct hit-"

"But you cannot tell me whether she'd dead or not. You have contacted me in the middle of a full frontal assault to tell me that Princess Sally _might_ be dead or _might_ be drawing out our troops into one of her accursed counter-attacks. Is that what you're telling me, Snivelly?"

Snivelly was suddenly uncertain. He'd been so sure his uncle would be pleased at the news. He'd been ready to describe in perfect detail the scream the princess had let out and the sight of the ice-breath dragon plummeting and trailing blood-

"Snivelly?"

"Yes, sir."

"A word of advice, Snivelly. Unless you have hard evidence, such as the princess's corpse, or the body of that _hedgehog_,do not contact me again. Failure to meet with these instruction will result in a … cessation of your services." The words were so loaded with meaning they sag in the middle.

Snivelly swallowed. He recalled the hard eyes of Robotnik's new allies, the echidnas, and the way their leaders stood beside him as if they were always meant to be there. They'd organised Knothole's downfall in such a short amount of time, showing intelligence and the kind of ruthlessness Robotnik prized and feared in equal measure because it was exactly what he'd used to overthrow the king. Snivelly also recalled the way the echidnas had turned their backs on _him_, as if he wasn't even worth looking at, and how Robotnik conducted their entire first meeting without wrenching his eyes from their faces. The echidnas had resources and technology they were willing to share if Robotnik used his transporter to bring them out of their dimension and into this one. Afterwards, the room had stunk of secrets and evil intent and Snivelly had felt shut out, despite being there the whole time. Merciless as he was, Robotnik would have no compunction about getting rid of his old deputy if a better, more reliable alternative was available.

"Are we clear, Snivelly?"

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"Come on, Ducly," Sally wheezed. "Come _on_."

Dulcy panted and held her wounded side. "I can't, Sally."

"Yes you _can_," Sally insisted, dragging on the dragon's arm and ignoring the ringing in her own ears. "You have to move."

Dulcy sank to her knees. "I'm serious, Sally. I _can't_."

"Dulcy, please." Sally hoped she kept the note of desperation out of her voice.

She scanned the sky. There had been so _many _enemies it was amazing they'd got this far without being spotted. The ditch was filthy, choked with old leaves that had gone rotten in the trickle of water lining the bottom, but overhanging bracken and other plants gave them more cover than if they were out in the open. The leaves muffled their footsteps and the putrid stench masked their scent. It was pure luck that had put them so close to this when Dulcy crashed out of the sky, and Sally's pure determination that had heaved Dulcy into the ditch when it became clear she was too injured to fly.

Dulcy kept her head down, tongue hanging like an overheated dog. She was breathing so heavily Sally feared they'd be found even as she worried for her friend. When she raised her face Sally saw the raw pain in her eyes. She also saw the dribble of blood running from the side of Dulcy's jaws.

"Sally, you have to leave me."

"That's not an option."

"You have to-"

"Not. An. Option."

"I'm hurt bad. I can't make it as far as the shelters, and definitely not without those things finding me first. A Freedom Fighter's first priority is to Knothole, right?" Dulcy parroted one of the soundbites Sally pedalled to keep them focussed in their fight against Robotnik.

Sally turned her face away. "Knothole is gone."

"Knothole isn't a bunch of huts – you know that better than I do. Knothole is the creatures who live in those huts. They're still out there and they need protecting."

"I'm not leaving you."

"You have to." Dulcy stared levelly at her.

"_You're_ part of Knothole, so you're my priority right now. Don't even start trying to argue with me, Dulcy Dragon. I'm not going anywhere without you and that's final."

Dulcy's expression was caught between grateful and anxious. "If they catch me it's just one less dragon. If they catch you …"

"I'm no more important than anyone else in this forest."

"Don't try that with me, Sally. We both know the Freedom Fighters need you more than they need me. If one of us has to go today, it can't be you."

"Neither of us is 'going' today," Sally snapped. "Stop talking nonsense. If you have the energy to argue with me then you have the energy to move." She yanked on Dulcy's arm, but dropped it when the dragon let out a sharp moan of pain.

"Sally, _please_; don't make me responsible for them catching you or worse," Dulcy pleaded. "The others need you – Bunnie and Rote and Tony and Tails, and especially Sonic. You can't choose me over all of them _and_ Knothole."

"Don't make me choose between them and you," Sally replied. "They're safe." She hoped that as true. They'd had enough time to evacuate by now. "You need me."

"_They_ need you," Dulcy contended. Suddenly she coughed, dropping her head and retching bloody spume into the leaves. Her sides heaved and the mangled mess of her left wing stared at Sally so hard she thought she might throw up herself. Dulcy's hide was a mass of scorch marks and scarlet wounds, her scales melted and fused together from the heat of the lasers - lasers she'd saved Sally from by taking their shots with her own body while Sally nestled inside her pouch. The lower half of Dulcy's tail was gone and her hindquarters were badly damaged, making it difficult for her to walk. It was a shock to realise just how badly she was injured.

"Dulcy," Sally said, voice thick with ill-defined emotion. "I'm sorry. You got hurt because of me-"

"As if. I got hurt because Buttnik is a no-good, dirty, rotten word-my-mom-would-kill-me-for-saying-if-I-said-it." Dulcy coughed again, pitching forward. "Sally, please go. I can't have you on my conscience."

"I'm staying-"

"Sally, I'm probably not going to live through this anyway," Dulcy said bluntly, revealing a side of herself that her whimsical nature often concealed.

Dulcy was young, but she was still a Freedom Fighter. You didn't become one and _stay_ one without learning to make part of yourself hard. Sally did it the day her father was taken from her, then rediscovered that hardened part of herself the first time she and her friends went back into Robotropolis as kits. There was a brutal truth to the reality of fighting a tyrant like Robotnik. If you wanted to stay sane, you had to accept the harshness and the bad things you saw, plus the possibility that every mission might be your last. It made you wake up with nightmares, but it also let you swallow your fear and do what needed to be done.

Sally looked into Dulcy's eyes now and saw that hardened part of her friend looking back. She still couldn't leave her, though. She was having a hard enough time understanding how and why echidnas were working for Robotnik, without this adding to the jumble in her mind. Tails's loss of sight was bad enough, but he was still _alive_. Sally was confused but she understood one thing – she would _not_ leave Dulcy to die like this.

Dulcy shoved her. "Go!" It was the shortest whole sentence possible, and also the saddest.

"I won't!"

"If you stay I'll hate you."

"So hate me."

"You're being selfish."

"What?"

"Everyone is relying on you. You can't let guilt over me stop you from being there for them. Besides, maybe those SWATbots won't find me at all. I'll hide here for a while and when they're gone I'll crawl out and find you guys."

Sally bit her lip. They both knew this wasn't true. Tears welled in her eyes. "I can't do it. I can't just leave you like this-"

"You can't leave them, either. You have a responsibility as their leader and as their princess."

Sally stared at Dulcy. She'd grown up so much since the little draglet she and Sonic saved in Mobotropolis, when they went back in time but couldn't avert the tragedy of Robotnik's takeover. Here was another tragedy on the brink of happening, and everything in Sally rebelled at the idea of walking away. Her heart ached and her throat constricted. "You're my friend."

"Then be my friend and save yourself."

"This doesn't sound like you. You sound more grown up than Rosie."

Dulcy winked. All her eyelashes and the scales on her left temple were gone, leaving the flesh beneath puckered and pink. "I guess it had to happen sometime. I wish I could've mastered my landings first, though."

That did it. Sally choked, tears running down her cheeks. She clutched Dulcy's hand, holding it to her face and feeling the rough scrape of scales against her fur. When Dulcy pushed against her it was gentle but firm.

"Go, Sally. You're wasting time."

"Please…"

Dulcy pulled her hand away. "Go."

Voices cut through the air, the monotone of SWATbots and others with the inflection of living creatures. They were hunting for them and had come near enough to be heard even in the ditch. The heavu tramp of metal feet made the bracken bounce.

Dulcy's eyes went wide. "Go!" she hissed. "They haven't seen you yet. You can still make a run for it. This ditch leads to the river, right?"

Sally nodded, wiping at her face. She took a step backwards, unable to look away as Dulcy wrapped what remained of her tail around herself and huddled against the side of the ditch. She was waiting and Sally couldn't bear to think what for.

"Go!"

Sally went.

And she hated herself for it when, only a short time later, she heard the blast of ice-breath and laserfire behind her.

* * *

_**To be Continued…**_

* * *


	15. Bunnie Crosses the Line

* * *

**12. Bunnie Crosses the Line**

* * *

Bunnie couldn't believe her eyes. She considered whether she'd been knocked out by a falling branch, but the two echidnas were no hallucination. They were very real, and so was their strange craft with its even stranger weapons – for what else could the gun-like contraption affixed to the handrail be? The heat thrown off by its flight mechanism sent up waves of loose debris and beat down the tufts of grass growing at irregular intervals on the forest floor.

She shrank behind her tree, thoughts of attacking them momentarily shelved. Knuckles was the last echidna on Mobius. That had always been what she believed. He was the last of his kind; the last of the Guardians _and _the last of his species. His stoicism on the subject didn't make it any less true. Even Sally had verified this – echidnas were never numerous on Mobius. Wary, overly intellectual and self-contained, they withdrew from life with other creatures centuries before, and through disease and other trials their numbers eventually dwindled to only a handful, and then only one. It was a sad affirmation of what could happen if all creatures, regardless of species, didn't pull together to survive – now more than ever in the diktat atmosphere Robotnik had established.

Bunnie was no expert on echidna culture. Nobody was, really, not even Knuckles – Guardians were removed from normal life and had developed their own customs and traditions based mainly around Angel Island and the Emerald. One thing everyone knew, though, was that more than any other species, echidnas hated technology. It was one of the reasons they'd died out from diseases easily cured by modern medicine. Even the Wolf Pack, with their deep spiritualism and close ties to nature, didn't snub the good some technology could do. It was something of a boogieman mother used to frighten kits: "If you don't take your medicine, you'll end up like the echidnas!" Long before she met Knuckles, Bunnie herself had heard creatures likened to echidnas when they were frightened or wary of one of Rotor's new inventions: "You are _such_ an echidna!"

To see two such creatures now, piloting a craft more advanced than anything she'd ever seen before, made her mouth drop open. Could everyone have been wrong all this time? Had echidnas been on Mobius all along, living in secret by themselves and quietly building machines more sophisticated than even Robotnik's clumsy SWATpods?

Had Knuckles lived thinking he was the last of his kind, with all the loneliness and sorrow that entailed, for no reason? The thought made Bunnie's heart ache.

One of the echidnas spoke. The voice was male, deep, with a resonant quality that put Bunnie in mind of Antoine when he tried to serenade Sally. "You're certain there were vreemdelings here?" He used a word she didn't understand, but there was no time to ponder it as his companion replied.

"Positive. We can't afford to take any chances. You know the orders: all creatures are to be captured and taken to Robotropolis or terminated and their bodies brought back." This voice was fluty, possibly female, with a hard edge like two knife blades being rubbed together.

"Whatever we were chasing, they escaped while we were breaking through the canopy. This dreadful forest is a nightmare to manoeuvre in. Give me a flat plain or the blocks of a city any day." The male spat. Bunnie heard it sizzle before it hit the ground. The heat from those flight pads was tremendous. Already it had baked the grass and leaves into curls. "_Robotropolis_. Not a real city."

"Stop whinging, you sound more like a newly-hatched than a warrior. We have to find those escapees. The village was empty. If we track them, maybe we can find where the other targets are hiding."

"These vreemdelings have no courage. Would you abandon your home without a fight?"

"I'd fight to abandon my 'home'. And stop using such language, it shows a lack of intellect."

Bunnie's head whirled. These echidnas were working for Robotnik? Or if not for, than with him at least. Knuckles's species or not, that automatically catalogued them under 'enemy' and made them very dangerous, especially in the current situation. She hefted the balloon full of metal-eating solution. She needed to take care of these two before they could follow Antoine and Rotor. Maybe then she could subdue them and find out what the hip-hop was going on here.

"Did you hear something?" the female voice demanded. "Ready the laser. I think we're being watched."

"You mean one of the vreemdelings is actually showing some spirit?"

Bunnie hid behind her tree trunk and heard the craft whirr a little nearer.

"Perhaps they _didn't_ run away after all - "

Now! Bunnie leaped out and hurled her balloon at the underside of the craft, right at the flight pads. The craft jolted to one side with incredible speed and agility, but the balloon hit its edge and solution sprayed in a wide arc – maybe not enough to totally destroy the mechanism, like she'd intended, but enough to throw it off-balance and send it careening towards the ground.

A look of shock etched both echidnas' faces. The female struggled to regain control, punching buttons and yanking on a baton attached to the handrail. The craft, however, was obviously not designed for such bumpy motion. As it bucked and twisted the male echidna was thrown from his perch, sliding right off the oval floor and into a clutch of gorse bushes. The female, showing great skill, managed to rotate it in a half circle and point the laser at Bunnie before crashing into a tree, leaping to safety only milliseconds before impact. The craft crumpled like tinfoil and fell to the ground, sputtering red and yellow sparks.

"Filthy vreemdeling!" the male roared, heaving himself out of the bushes. He was stuck all over with thorns, especially his tail and headspines, which Bunnie knew from her time with Knuckles were quite sensitive. "I'll tear your eyes out!"

The female made no such declaration. She just got up, walked back to the sparking craft and twisted off the laser with one metal hand. Then she levelled it at Bunnie, who was too shocked at the gleam of cold steel fingers to acknowledge the danger she was in. It was only the male echidna running towards her, recklessly crossing the female's line of fire, which shook her from her trance and saved her life.

Bunnie dived aside to avoid the male's headlong charge. He scooted past her and she rolled under a patch of large flat leaves, lost from sight of either echidna. Scurrying as best she could on all fours (more difficult for her than other creatures because of her unyielding metal limbs), she hurried back to the balloons. The leaves behind her were shredded by laser-fire, pieces of charred greenery floating down like black snowflakes.

Bunnie reached the sacks, scooped them up and kept going upright. She kept her ears flat against the back of her skull to stop them from showing above the foliage, but her movement of the leaves gave her away.

The ground in front of her suddenly exploded. Bunnie was thrown backwards, slamming up against a tree and taking the brunt of the blow to her spine to protect her precious cargo. The metal lower half of her torso prevented any huge spinal damage, but the wind went out of her and she spent a few seconds marshalling her scattered wits – in which time someone tramped towards her on heavy booted feet. Bunnie kept her head down, feigning unconsciousness rather than trying to break and run so they could shoot her again.

"I don't know what Robotnik was talking about. These vreemdelings are weak as newborns. Even the ones who put up a fight are no match for us."

"Don't underestimate your opponent. Look – augmentations."

"What? A _vreemdeling_ augmented itself?"

"It may be more resilient than you give it credit for." Something cold and hard tipped Bunnie's chin. Bunnie smelled a strange scent, nothing like Knuckles, as the female drew closer to examine her. "Some kind of Lagomorph, I'd say probably a member of the Lepridae family, and attributes suggest a female in late pubescence-"

"Stop pushing your studies at me. Use words I can understand."

"It's a rabbit girl, you idiot; not yet fully matured but old enough to be a threat if she's as augmented as she looks-"

The words were directed away from her, probably as a result of the female echidna speaking over her shoulder. Bunnie made a snap decision and grabbed the barrel of the laser pointed at her throat. Crushing the barrel with her roboticised hand, she twisted to reach into one of the sacks with the other and hurled a balloon. The throw wasn't completely wild, but it wasn't as accurate as it might've been had her eyes been open and fully focussed.

It was still accurate enough.

The female echidna screamed as her hands and lower arms dissolved. "Aanvaller!" The words came out as a gurgle, and Bunnie realised with dismay that her melting fingers were clutching a throat that was also turning into a mass of green paste and mist. The ruined laser dropped, forgotten, as the echidna staggered back, foam forming at the sides of her mouth. Her eyes were round and fixed on Bunnie in surprise - surprise that became flat and eternal as she slumped, coughing and retching, to the forest floor.

"Vreemdeling!" the male yelled, leaping over the body of his companion to attack Bunnie.

There was no time to grab and throw another balloon, so Bunnie met his strike with one of her own. The punch wasn't as powerful as his, but it connected with his shoulder and allowed her to stand and deliver another to his jaw that laid him flat. He snarled and kicked out with both feet. Bunnie learned they were metal when the kick sent her lurching backwards with a fresh dent in her shin and a sensation like jumping into the deep part of the river only to learn the rock-bed was higher than you thought.

"Unf!"

"Moordenaar! Vuiligheid!"

"Speak Mobian, will ya? If'n you're gonna insult me at least let me know how bad your mouth is so I can beat it the right amount."

He blocked her right hook and her haymaker, and then met her knee with the flat of one hand before it made contact with his stomach. Bunnie spun into a snap kick and got some satisfaction from her heel sending him back a few paces, but it quickly evaporated as he came back at her with a flurry of jabs that forced her up against a tree. The echidna was good – _very_ good. He wasted no movement and seemed almost to anticipate her actions before she made them. She was holding her own, but only just.

"Puny piece of filth," he snarled. "You think you're good enough to take the life of a Legionary?" He shoved her hard and she had to step over the blank-eyed female echidna.

"I didn't mean to!" Bunnie kept the thoughts of what she'd done at bay by concentrating on the situation at hand – there was nothing but vengeance and murder in the male echidna's eyes. They reminded her of nothing so much as Robotnik's eyes when she was captured at the factory. Robotnik wanted to kill and destroy anything he couldn't control or corrupt. To see a face so similar to Knuckles in shape and colour, yet so different in intent, was jarring. Bunnie found it difficult to reconcile the creature trying to kill her with the one she'd fallen in love with.

"Vreemdeling!" the echidna shouted, thrusting an elbow into her stomach and reducing her to a gasping heap.

Bunnie fell nose to nose with the dead female. She scrambled away, but her chest convulsed as she tried to suck in air and she coughed violently. The male echidna grabbed her ears and yanked her upright, staring hatefully into her face.

"Vreemdeling," he said again.

"What … the hoo-hah … does that _mean_?" Bunnie gasped.

"It means you are not an echidna, therefore you are filth."

He tightened his grip on her ears, which weren't as sensitive as an echidna's spines but weren't entirely without pain receptors. Bunnie winced. "That ain't no way talk to a lady." She dunked the balloon she'd palmed when she fell, bursting it open on his feet. The male yelped and toppled, letting go of her as he threw out both hands to brace his fall. Bunnie leapt aside to escape the spreading puddle of metal-eating solution, but reached across and pinched a nerve in his neck that rendered him unconscious before he could regroup – although what he could do with no feet was debateable.

Bunnie hastily turned him over to prevent a repeat of what had happened before, but the male had no metal above his knees. Still, she felt sick at what she'd done. She could feel the female echidna's gaze on her as if she really was watching what she did next, and couldn't bring herself to turn around as she gathered the sacks and made off into the forest. She worked on instinct, covering her tracks as she went, not questioning whether it was wise to have left the male alive. Freedom Fighters didn't go that far – they didn't kill.

But she had.

The moisture that fell in the dust as she passed was not solution from the balloons, but her own tears.

* * *

Sally ran.

She was self-aware enough to keep herself under cover, but everything else was a blur. She kept thinking of Dulcy, and the sound of lasers echoed in her head, as they would do for a long time to come.

_I left her to die_, she kept thinking. _She was my friend and I left her to be murdered. _

Intellectually, Sally knew there had been no other option. If she'd stayed they would both be dead now. Dulcy had sacrificed herself so that Sally had a chance to escape and live. Still, knowing something with your head was very different than knowing it with your heart – and right now Sally's heart ached just as much as it had each time she lost her father. Maybe even more, because those times she'd been helpless to stop what was happening, whereas this time she hadn't been an onlooker. She had been there, held Dulcy, smelled her blood and … and …

Tears blinded her for a second, so that when she instinctively darted left she didn't, at first, understand what she was seeing. She crouched low under giant fronds of bracken, cursing herself for not thinking about where she was going like the great tactician she was supposed to be. But more than that, she stared, flabbergasted, at Knothole.

Or rather, at what had once been Knothole.

Everything had been destroyed. Huts stood half or wholly collapsed, their thatched roofs on fire. Some had been blasted into pieces that were spread everywhere, roof beams sticking up like ribs wrenched from the chest of some massive beast. The grass was either churned up into muddy sods or had been burned away to blackened oval patches, like scars on the very ground itself. Everything Sally might have recognised stood disfigured, wrecked, ruined – everything she'd spent years building up had been razed. She could hardly believe it had taken so little time for Robotnik to smash it all.

What was she doing here? She should have been running … somewhere else, at least. Had her subconscious driven her back here to make sure everybody had gotten out before the SWATbots came?

One of the huts juddered. Sally watched, transfixed, as it exploded outwards and a figure picked its way over the wreckage. It had shiny metal fists, too big for its body, which it clanged together in some semblance of a victory dance – presumably over defeating a defenceless hut from the inside. There was no mistaking what the creature was.

_But there aren't any echidnas left on Mobius!_

And yet, evidently, there were. Or at least there were _pieces_ of echidnas left – grafted to robotic parts and set in motion like clockwork figures after they'd been wound up. Terrible speculations appeared in Sally's mind: had Robotnik captured the last echidnas and done this to them? It seemed the most logical explanation. Had there been an unknown colony of these insular beasts, which he had discovered before them? Robotnik had been searching for any surviving dragons for just that purpose.

Except … except this didn't match up with Robotnik's _modus operandi_. He loathed flesh when it wasn't his own, and desired above all things to turn every last Mobian into a Robian under his control. There was no way he would have allowed any creatures to be as these were, a piecemeal batch of flesh and metal. Even Bunnie had been an accident; one which Robotnik had announced several times he wished to rectify by 'finishing what the Roboticisor started'.

But there had been SWATpods in the attack on Knothole, and there were SWATbots marching around the remains of the village now. It didn't make any _sense_. Etched with guilt, Sally still pushed aside her grief for Dulcy and her home to consider what was going on. Knothole was gone, destroyed by a combination of Robotnik's forces and these new semi-roboticised echidnas. Several more of them came into view as Sally watched, some riding hovering ovals with handrails attached, some walking about like the first one she'd spotted. None of them had identical metal limbs. Some were more robot than flesh, while others had only one hand, one foot or part of their faces roboticised. It was a bizarre sight, and also a sinister one. Aside from the obvious physical difference, and their presence in the Knothole raiding party, something about these echidnas was so alien from Knuckles or his father that Sally's stomach actually lurched.

"There's nobody here," one echidna proclaimed.

"Well, there wouldn't be, would there? All the cowards upped and ran for it the moment they heard our superior forces coming," replied another. She spat on the ground. "Filthy vermin."

"Nevertheless, we should finish combing the area before the Leaders arrive," said a third, and Sally heard the capital 'L' as clearly as if she'd read it. This echidna tapped at his ear under his headspines – or at least where Sally assumed his ear would once have been, based on his next statement. "We need to ensure there are no survivors. I have received a transmission that the Leader of this faction was shot down in combat, but there has been no sign of a corpse. Group Fourteen dispatched a creature of designation Draconus-glacies. They are currently removing the remains, but there was no sign of any creature of designation Sciurus-niger in the immediate vicinity. Our orders are to ensure this 'Princess Sally' has not returned to this location. If she has, orders are that we shoot to kill."

Sally froze. Then, slowly, she crawled backwards, trying not to disturb the bracken or any of the other low foliage that might give her away. She even held her breath, as if her shallow breathing could be heard.

And perhaps it could. Certainly, when one echidna with a metal plate on the back of his skull turned in her direction, she wished she could momentarily stop her heart so he wouldn't use its terrified beating to locate her. Her fingers cramped in the dirt and her knees ached against the hard ground where no grass grew, but she didn't dare move. Even blinking suddenly seemed like a bad idea against the obvious laser rifle strung across this echidna's back.

"Groups Seven and Eight, progress in an easterly direction -"

"Aaaaargh!"

Bedlam erupted in the form of another echidna ploughing through the trees on the other side of Knothole. He was wild-eyed and silver-armed, and behind him came a female whose eyes were both covered by a visor with a single roving red diode.

It was the male who had cried out. "Gae-Nar is dead!" he shrieked. "One of those vermin murdered her."

"Gae-Nar?" echoed several echidnas. "But that's impossible. How?"

"They _melted _her augmentations! She choked to death on her own metal!"

_The metal-eating solution_, Sally immediately thought. That meant someone had engaged this new enemy – probably one of the Freedom Fighters rather than an ordinary villager if they had access to the solution. But who? And had they survived the encounter? Sally's stomach dropped at the idea they might not have made it. _Please let whoever it is be okay. I can't face losing anyone else today. _

"Is Rykor also dead?"

"No, he lives, but his augmentations are gone too."

"Ugh. Better to die a warrior's death than to be crippled," said an echidna whose headspines were all an array of coloured wires and steel.

"Rykor can be repaired. Gae-Nar's life is not so replaceable," said the echidna who had received the transmission about Dulcy. "Spread out and find whoever is responsible. They cannot have gotten far."

Sally needed to get away, and she needed to do it _now_. She backed up yet further, intending to stay hidden for as long as she could. However, she knew she may need to make a run for it and hope she could either outpace these echidnas and their SWATbot helpers, or at least that she knew this forest better than they did. She suspected they couldn't manoeuvre those vehicles very well through the closely packed trees, just as SWATpods found difficulty in doing so. That was her only, extremely thin hope, and it offered even thinner comfort.

Stupid. Why had she come back? Sentimentality? Or just plain idiocy? Grief had made her thoughtless, and now it may cost her more than just embarrassment and ridicule from Sonic.

_Sonic …_

"There!" All Sally's fur stood on end as the echidna with the visor pointed in her direction and yelled, "The heat signature of a living creature."

"Get it!" shouted her partner.

With no weapon and no other option, Sally did what she'd been doing far too much of lately.

She ran.

* * *

_**To Be Continued …**_

* * *


	16. Mob Mentality

* * *

**13. Mob Mentality**

* * *

"Incoming!"

Everyone froze, thinking it was an attack, until Sonic flipped back the fake tree stump and Bunnie tumbled inside. Her face was streaked with tears and she clutched two burlap sacks like they were the most precious things in the world. Her breathing came hoarse and rapid, and all those who heard and saw her immediately felt seeds of panic stir within them.

"Close the hatch!" she gasped. When it had clicked back into place she sank down in a heap against the wall.

"Bunnie?" Rosie was at her side in an instant. "Bunnie, what on Mobius happened?"

Bunnie just shook her head, breathed deeply, and schooled her face into a mask of sure-headedness. She even smiled, though those closest to her saw it end at her gums. Her eyes were still tormented and grief-stricken.

Sonic immediately thought the worst. "Did you Sal or Dulce out there?"

She shook her head.

"Damn it!"

"Sonic! Language." Rosie tried to help Bunnie to her feet, but Bunnie waved her away and stood up alone.

"I saved the balloons," she said after a moment. Rotor took them, just as Antoine pushed past him and did the unexpected: he _hugged_ Bunnie, forgoing all pretence at decorum because he was so pleased to see his friend safe and well.

Or … not well, because there was something seriously wrong with Bunnie. She stood like a statue and didn't return the hug. For her that was the same as anyone else kicking him in the gut.

Antoine pulled back in bewilderment. "Bunnie?" he ventured. "Are you being as all rightness as you are seeming? Are you injuriated?"

"Nah, sugar, I'm not hurt."

"I am most sorry for to be leaving you. It was …" He wrinkled his nose as though he'd smelled something bad. "It was cowardliness of moi."

"And me," Rotor added. "Sorry, Bunnie."

She didn't reply.

"How did you get away?" Rotor asked.

Her eyes flicked around the assembled villagers, pressing in around the Freedom Fighters like one seething mass of eavesdroppers. Alarm spiked in Sonic, as much as it ever did – Bunnie didn't want to cause a riot in a confined space full of already nervous beasts, which meant whatever had happened to her out there _had_ to be bad.

Which made it even worse that he didn't know anything about Sally and Dulcy.

"I did something I ain't proud of," Bunnie said softly. "But I saved the balloons." That was the second time she'd said that. Sonic knew the balloons were really important in their fight against Robotnik, but something about the way Bunnie spoke made him wary; as though she was clinging to this fact like a life-raft in choppy seas. He wasn't the most perceptive of hedgehogs, even though he was the coolest, but right now his brain was such a syrup of hyperawareness that even _he_ could tell Bunnie was hanging onto to this fact to deflect from something else.

_Sal… _

Bunnie's eyes were glossy, but she sucked in a breath, shook her head slightly, and looked directly at Sonic. "Sugar-hog, Robotnik's got himself some new allies. It ain't just SWATbots out there."

"Who?"

"That ain't important right now. What's important is that everybody gets down into these here lower chambers an' stays there until we all can say to come up again."

"The lower chambers?" echoed one of the villagers behind Sonic. "But there's a limited air supply down there! We'll suffocate."

Panicky muttering erupted like smoke from a small fire.

"Better a limited air supply than outright dead," Bunnie snapped, surprising everyone. "You'll be fine for an hour. The lower chambers are reinforced. They can withstand attacks much better than these upper compartments. Trust me when I say every beast here will thank me later for puttin' y'all down there."

Eventually, they managed to corral everyone into single file, and they trooped off to the smelly, dank lower chambers. Tails opted to go with the others, and both he and Rosie soothed the worried and recalcitrant mutterings as best they could. Before h disappeared, however, Tails drew close to Sonic and felt for his hand.

"Sonic, what about the terrapods?"

Sonic held tight to his little buddy's fingers. "They'll be fine, Big Guy. They're probably smarter at out-manoeuvring these enemies than we are. They got the whole forest to lose 'em in, remember? And it makes it easier for them to get away because whoever's out there is busy looking for us while we're sitting pretty down here where they can't get at us."

Tails's throaty noise didn't sound convinced, but he withdrew with Rosie, leaving Bunnie, Sonic, Rotor and Antoine staring at each other in a small circle.

Sonic breathed deeply. His instincts were jumping like popcorn in a popper, and it was taking every scrap of meagre self-control he had not to just burst out of this dump and strike out on his own, consequences be damned. Envisioning how Sally would react in this situation was all that kept his sneakers glued to the floor and his eyes glued to Bunnie. Sal would kill him if he did something stupid after everybody had already risked so much to keep themselves safe.

"All right," he said grimly. "Start talking."

* * *

Sally's lungs were burning. She knew she was only staying ahead of her pursuers by the skin of her teeth, and that thought provided little comfort. She ran and kept on running, dodging as best she could and wondering where the heck she was supposed to go now. She couldn't lead them anywhere near the shelters, but she couldn't keep going aimlessly forever, either. She wasn't built for sustaining running, just brief sprints. Adrenaline and fatigue were taking their toll, and she could feel her leg and arm muscles beginning to tire. Soon she'd get clumsy, and then it was only a matter of time before she made a critical mistake that put her in a vulnerable position with so many enemies chasing her.

_TSEW!_

And shooting at her.

Sally dived to one side and scrabbled into a shallow trench covered in fronds of aptly-named trenchgrass. It tickled her back as she crawled along, but trenchgrass moved a lot anyway, so unless that echidna with the heat-sensing visor was nearby Sally could perhaps gain a few extra seconds –

"Her signature is there, on your left!"

Well _that_ reprieve was certainly too much to hope for, wasn't it? Sally broke cover and sprinted for the closely-knit deciduous trees that ran parallel to the river. Perhaps if she dived in she could drop her body temperature and disguise herself that way.

_TSEW!_

Hot pain bit into her side. She cried out, stumbled and collided with a tree trunk. For a second her vision greyed with pain, and when her hand went to her hip it came back wet and shining red. She forced herself not to stop, but the moist throb of her injury slowed her progress. Already she could hear her pursuers crashing through the undergrowth on their metal feet, growing ever closer. One of them, perhaps the one who'd already hit her, would probably be lining up for a killing shot right now …

All at once the undergrowth behind her seemed to explode. The echidnas shouted and yelped, unprepared for this new assault against them. Something that sounded remarkably like a buzz saw went off, throwing up greenery and mud faster than the worst storm Sally had ever witnessed. She tried to keep ahead of whatever new problem this was, but it quickly overtook her and she found herself losing contact with the ground.

"No-!"

"Hey, Sal. Need a lift?"

Sally blinked, her senses dulled with pain. "S-Sonic?"

"The one and only! Can you hang onto me?"

She shoved aside the cloudiness trying to over take her mind and nodded. She linked her arms around his neck, ignoring the pain in her side when she stretched upwards. Sonic's arm tightened around her. He held up his power ring with his other hand. It glowed, and Sally felt the familiar crackle of its energy coursing through him, setting her own fur on end with static.

"Juice and jam time! Whooooooo -"

Together, they raced away through the trees, bouncing from floor to branch in a haphazard, breakneck pattern not even the echidna with the visor could follow.

* * *

Bunnie felt numb, but she forced herself to keep going. She plopped into the lower chambers as though plopping into a bowl of broth. The air was soupy, full of hushed voices and thick with fear. It was also far hotter than she'd expected. So many bodies crammed into the small space had raised the temperature enough that within seconds her fur was damp with sweat. She knew she had to tread carefully – both literally and metaphorically. This kind of atmosphere bred panic like wet food grew mould, and the situation was bad enough already.

"Aunt Bunnie?"

It was dark in the lower chambers. Bunnie strained her eyes, picking out the faint outline of Tails's ears in the gloom. "Yeah, sugar?"

"Are you okay?"

She'd expected him to ask about Sonic, or what was going on, or who was attacking above. She should've known better. This was _Tails_ after all. Still, she took a breath before answering, and chose her words precisely. Sometimes it was good to have a barnload of clichés to call on. "Finer than frog hair, darlin'. How you fixed?"

"I'm okay, I guess. Everybody's a little nervous." He gave a short laugh that was far too old for his age. "But there's nothing to worry about, right?" She could tell he didn't believe it, but he knew the others were listening. He'd read the atmosphere for what it was, too.

_When did you quit bein' a kid an' become an adult?_ Bunnie wondered. She cleared her throat. "We'll be fine, so long as everybody sits tight an' waits for the signal that it's safe to come out."

"I hope it's soon," said someone whose voice she didn't recognise. His tone was laced with enough tension to suspend the whole village on a single wire. "I'm claustrophobic. This is killing me."

Bunnie bit her tongue. Being aboveground would kill him a whole lot faster. She'd elected to come down here and check on everyone, since her snapping at them earlier had frightened them. It made sense that if she was the one to reassure them they'd lose some of their fear – in theory, anyway. In reality she wasn't so sure, but since Sonic hared off, Rotor and Antoine had been distinctly uncomfortable in her company.

_And why not? No other Freedom Fighter ever took a life before_.

She tried to shake away the thought. It stuck like chewing gum in hair, too enmeshed to free and painful if she tugged at it. She'd killed. It didn't matter that she hadn't meant to. She was a killer. Her throat hurt and her eyes stung. Suddenly she was glad for the darkness. She felt sick.

Sonic had taken some of the balloons. He had gone to get Sally and Dulcy. He hadn't told her it was impossible for their enemies to be echidnas, or even showed surprise when she explained about their roboticised parts. He had just wanted to know where she engaged them and what their transportation was like – how fast it went and whether she reckoned it was manoeuvrable as a hedgehog going at top speed. His top priority had been their friends. Bunnie envied him that focus. Her own mind felt like it was unravelling.

Freedom Fighters didn't kill. They didn't. How could she forgive herself for what she'd done? How could anyone forgive themselves after they'd taken a life? Only someone like Robotnik, someone totally without mercy, would fail to feel a thing after such an act.

_Killer. Knuckles won't want you now. How could he forgive you for killing one of his species, especially when he thought he was the last? Killer. Killerkillerkiller …_

Bunnie turned back to the ladder. Better to sit with Rotor and Antoine than be down here where the villagers who had always depended on her were a constant reminder that she'd failed what the Freedom Fighters stood for – what they depended on her to stand for – in a fundamental way.

"Right. As long as y'all are dandy, I'd best be gettin' back to the grindstone."

"Take care, Aunt Bunnie."

"Yeah, Tails honey." Bunnie swallowed hard. "I will."

* * *

Something was wrong with Bunnie. Tails wasn't stupid. She had practically _run away_ from him. Bunnie never ran away. She was the toughest, rootin'-est, tootin'-est gal this side of anywhere. Even so, he'd heard her go up that ladder like her tail was on fire, which left him worrying about what had happened. What wasn't she telling him?

Instantly his thoughts turned to Sally. He hoped she was all right. Dulcy, too. They had been cornerstones of his world for so long, he'd come to see them as almost indestructible. Then stuff like this happened and he felt like such a little _kid_ for being so naïve. Being a Freedom Fighter wasn't a game. Fighting any war brought casualties, and this one meant losses whose names he knew.

Potential losses, he corrected himself. They hadn't lost anyone today. He couldn't let himself believe anything else.

"Look out, he's gonna blow!" someone cried out behind him.

Tails was less affected by the dark, enclosed space of the lower chambers than the rest of them, since he couldn't see his surroundings anyway. He turned at the voice, but his whiskers sensed someone else also in motion.

"Now then, what's the matter?" Rosie asked in the no-nonsense tone she used when telling even Sally to wash strawberries before she ate them.

"I can't stay," whimpered a small voice. "I-It's … the walls. The walls are too close. Too close … This place – please. Please, let me out. I've … I've got to get out. I've got to get _out_!" Whoever was speaking obviously made an attempt to get at the ladder.

Tails heard the sounds of a scuffle. Someone knocked into him. He grabbed blindly, hand closing over part of an arm. His other hand found the base of a tail. That narrowed down who it could be, though he still wasn't exactly sure who he was holding onto.

"Let go!" the creature yelled. "Let go of me! I've got to get out. I've got to – you don't understand. I can't stay. I have to get out of here. I'm gonna be sick. Yeah, that's it. I'm gonna –"

"Stop being so selfish," snapped Doctor Quack. Another of his personalities had obviously taken control, since he sounded nothing like he had when channelling his little girl. His voice had deepened, roughening at the edges with an accent. He marched up and disengaged Tails's hands. "If you go running outta here you'll give away our location. There ain't just you down here, you know."

"But -"

"Boyo, you are asking for a good thrashing. If you try to jeopardise our safety again, I'll smack the tartar right off your teeth." If this was his idea of a bedside manner, Tails was glad he'd rarely been sick before. He got the feeling this wasn't the real Doctor Quack in control, though. What was unsettling was that he didn't recognise this personality. He'd have preferred the mewling little girl voice of earlier, even if that was, in itself, rather disturbing.

"Please …" whimpered the probably-claustrophobic owner of the voice. "P-please … I can't breathe …" Soft sobs filled the air.

Tails bit his lower lip. He could feel panic rising around him. This was just what they _didn't_ need.

Neither was the scream that suddenly erupted from the back of the crowd.

"He fell in. Oh my … the floor, it just collapsed. Help! Help, someone! He'll drown!"

"Drown?" Tails echoed, not sure he'd heard that right. They were deep underground, surrounded on all sides by solid rock. It was why air supply was such an issue and claustrophobia such a danger.

"We didn't think anyone would care if we slipped off … he said it'd be fine to explore, and there was this little passage right at the back. Nobody else could've fitted. It was a squeeze for us, too. But the floor just _gave way_ in there, and he fell in, and then I couldn't see him anymore. There was a … a river or something, and he's fallen in, and he's going to drown if someone doesn't help him! Please, someone, you have to rescue my brother!"

The crowd undulated. Tails's own panic started to rise, but not for the same reason. He was more scared by _their _panic, and what it might cause, than bywhat had spooked them.

"We're gonna die," said the claustrophobic, still close enough that Tails could hear the low murmur. Then it wouldn't have mattered even if he'd been on the other side of a battlefield, as the voice rose to a shriek. "We're all gonna die! Kiss your tails goodbye, because we're finished! We're dead! This is our _tomb _-"

"Shaddup." Before anyone could stop him, Doctor Quack cracked the speaker with his palm. Tails heard the impact, and the claustrophobic crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

"Please!" shouted the desperate child. "You have to rescue my brother! Won't someone please follow me and come save him?"

But Tails knew that even if the noise of stamping feet and frightened voices hadn't risen to mob level, nobody was really listening anymore.

* * *

_**To Be Continued …**_

* * *


	17. The Losses Mount Up

**A/N****:** Just a quick note to let readers know that I'm currently running my annual fanart competition, details of which can be found at obabscribbler. livejournal. com (slash) 530588. html. There are prizes available, including a package of prizes you can receive through snail-mail and fic written by me to your specifications, so I hope people will consider entering and making it as fun this year as it has been for the past two years.

* * *

**14. The Losses Mount Up**

* * *

Sonic blasted through the trees, willing himself to go faster than he ever had before. He had run so many missions before where it felt like everything hinged on his speed, and every time he'd been up to the challenge. He'd grown cocky, to the point where overconfidence was his default mode. Sally was constantly ragging on him to be more careful, worrying that what she saw as his arrogance would one day get him killed – or worse. He always blew off her words. He was the fastest thing alive, wasn't he? It was insulting for her to think he couldn't handle himself, or that he'd screw up because he had the cheek not to doubt himself like everybody else. Modesty was for chumps. If you were good, why hide it under a bushel? Whatever a bushel was.

Right now, though? Sonic was also worried he'd screw up. He was worried _big time. _Suddenly, every single time Sally had warned him to be careful, to not take chances, to play it safe, they all rolled around in his head like an unpopped kernel in a popcorn machine. This time he couldn't afford to screw up. This time, more than all the others, he needed to be the fastest.

Because this time Sally was relying on him more than she ever had before – in a different _way_ than she ever had before. Until now it had been all about the big picture – ousting Robotnik, retrieving the king, restoring Mobotropolis and the world they used to know. Now the crisis was a lot smaller, and at the same time a whole lot bigger.

Sally clung to him like her muscles were locked and she couldn't let go even if she tried. Sal was way too independent for that. He could feel her shake with pain each time he banked a hard left or right, or whenever he shifted his grip and brushed her injured side. It made him clench his jaw and force out an extra bit of hustle. It made him wonder whether he really _was _the fastest, and test his limits to see whether he really was sitting on his laurels or could bring it when it mattered most. At that moment, nothing else existed except Sally, the terrain, and the fact he had to get to the shelter if she was to survive.

So when he exploded from the brush to find a deep hollow in the ground where he knew one of the shelters used to be, he was genuinely caught between his two roles – one of the leaders of the Freedom Fighters, and himself, Sonic Hedgehog.

The edges of the hollow were burned. An acrid stench hung in the air. It looked as if the stump that covered the entrance had been dug out by one of Robotnik's earth-moving machines, which clawed up the ground like metal monsters burrowing to destroy the living core of the planet. In the middle of the forest's natural beauty, it was horrifying.

Likewise the fact there were no Mobians around, but there _was _blood on the ground.

Sonic's heart almost stopped. _No_, he thought desperately. One of the shelters had not only been breached, but the villagers hiding there had been taken. He looked up, and could make out blips in the distance that had to be those weird hover-transports the echidnas were using. Those things were fast. If they had taken the survivors to Robotropolis, it would take all Sonic's speed to catch up with them –

Sally groaned softly in his arms. "Sonic, what –" She moved enough to catch sight of the destruction. "Oh no. _No."_

Crashing emanated from the trees behind them. The lead they had on their pursuers was being eaten up the longer they stood there. Sonic gritted his teeth and made a snap decision. He couldn't help the captured villagers now – not and get Sally to safety. Though it burned him up inside, he had to choose between them.

"Sorry," he muttered, and took off again, not sure exactly who he was apologising to.

* * *

Bunnie entered the upper chamber and all her breath left her. She'd heard the entrance thump back into place before her head crested the lip of the hole into the lower chambers, and expected to find Sonic had returned. Part of her knew he wouldn't have come back without Sally and Dulcy, which made her heart lift until she reached the scene.

Sally lay in Sonic's arms, shivering like she was cold. One entire side of her vest was deep red, the fur around and beneath it matted into dark spikes. Sonic's expression hovered just shy of panic, mirroring Rotor and Antoine's. He met Bunnie's eyes and she read the silent plea there.

"She got shot," he said, something desperate and vulnerable in his voice that he cleared his throat to be rid of. "Those echidnas were chasing her, but I jammed right outta there. No way could they follow us." His gaze ticked back to the top of Sally's head. "But they shot Sal with some kind of laser thingy, I think. And they …" He stopped. There was more he wanted to say, Bunnie could tell, but instead he asked, "Where's Rosie?"

"In the lower chambers with the others." Bunnie was horrified by Sally's injury. Rarely had she ever seen her so helpless. Sally was an expert in putting on a brave face and downplaying every setback, every wound and every disappointment from every mission. It rocked Bunnie to her heart, seeing her best friend like this: clinging to Sonic's neck not out of love, but because if she let go there was no guarantee she could hold herself upright. "I … I left her down there … with Tails …"

"I'll get her," Rotor said instantly. "I fix machines, not people. I'm no good at situations like this. I'll take Rosie's place down below, help keep order and all that." His tone was apologetic, though what he said made perfect sense.

"My princess," Antoine murmured. "What have they to be doing to you?"

Bunnie agreed. Sally looked awful. Worse than awful. And another terrible though had occurred to her as she looked around and found the small space still relatively empty. "Sugar-hog, what about Dulcy?"

For a second Sonic looked pained. It was an incrementally different expression, though no less disturbing. It looked like he had something he really didn't want to have to say. Since Sonic was the worst culprit for blurting every thought that popped into his head, with no thought for consequences, this in itself was worrying. Today was definitely a day for unpleasant new experiences.

The trend continued as Sally saved Sonic from having to answer. "She's gone," she mumbled groggily. "They're … they were all gone …"

Bunnie's insides went colder than the metal of her roboticised limbs. "Sally-girl? You sound like you ain't got both oars in the water, sugar. Hush a while an' save your strength until Rosie gets here –"

Sally interrupted her. "She's gone. Dulcy's gone." Her voice broke in the middle like a sheet of ice she was trying to stand on too close to the Spring thaw. The water beneath was icy. As one, they all plunged in.

Horror and incredulity closed over Bunnie's head. She couldn't breathe. The news was just too shocking. Her lungs seized up, her hands were like lead weights on the ends of her arms – even her ears flopped back and dangled like they'd had the wind knocked out of them. No words would come loose from the back of her throat. Even if they had, she had no breath to say them.

Dulcy, dead? No. Gone meant absent. It just meant she wasn't here. She was probably off flying around, distracting the enemy or … something. Never mind the anguished note in Sally's voice, or Sonic's expression, or the feeling deep in Bunnie's own gut that told her the worst possibility was the right one. Sally was groggy and in pain. She wasn't thinking clearly. She was confused. Gone didn't mean –

"Robotnik's new allies killed her," Sally said. "Sh-she gave me the ch-chance to escape. She wouldn't leave after they shot us down … I couldn't make her … she was too injured, but I … and then they … I ran away. I just ran away and they … they …" She took a deep, shuddering breath. "They raided one of the shelters, too."

"No." The word slipped from Antoine, but they were all thinking it: _This isn't happening. This can't be happening. Please, let this not be happening._

"Sonic?" Antoine looked to him for confirmation.

Sonic looked away. "They took everyone. We couldn't do anything." Defiance crept into his tone, but it was clear this tore him up inside.

"It happened before we got there," Sally added. "But it … it happened …" Suddenly all the fight seemed to go out of her. She slumped in Sonic's arms. The tension holding her rigid left her and she drooped, head back, arms slipping from around his neck. The one closest to Bunnie hung down, allowing blood to ooze down her palm and along her fingers, dripping steadily onto the floor.

"Sal!" Panic infused Sonic's voice completely. Nobody would mock him for losing his cool – not even Antoine – not at a time like this. They were all too close to doing it themselves. "Sal, don't do this! Stay with me. Sal? Sal!"

"My princess!"

"Sally-girl!"

Which was, of course, when fresh hell broke loose from under their feet.

Rotor's head popped up from the hole to the lower chambers. "Guys, we have a situation down here."

"We have a situation _right here_," Sonic snapped. "Where's Rosie, man?"

"That's kind of the situation. We're about three whiskers close to an all-out revolt. There's been some sort of cave-in that has everyone spooked, a child's gone missing in that area, creatures are starting to panic, and Rosie's on the other side of a big mob who'll stampede or worse if I even hint about –" His gaze fell on Sally. And the widening pool of blood. He was especially caught by the blood. "Oh no. Oh man. Oh _no_. Is she –?"

"She's still breathing," said Sonic. "But she needs help _now_."

Rotor's jowls quivered the way they always did when he was bewildered and desperately thinking through what he should do next. Rotor was a creature of logic. It was why he engaged so well with machines and making repairs – if it was broken, there was a logical way to fix it or reuse it to fix something else. Messy organic things like flesh and blood, or emotions, put him on shaky ground. His habit of doubting himself increased tenfold when faced with a those kinds of crises – and here was one with all of them all at its centre.

He glanced down the hole and then back up at them. "Creatures are gonna get hurt no matter what we do," he said. "Aren't they?"

Bunnie heard his words and something inside her tightened, like thin strands knotting together to form a ball of steel. They had lost too much today already – lives, their home, part of their remaining innocence, and other things besides. Robotnik was close to winning. Closer than he ever had been before.

She couldn't let that happen. Regardless of what she'd done today, she was still a Freedom Fighter.

"Not if we can help it, sugar," she said to Rotor.

"But how –"

Bunnie stepped towards the hole. "Y'all just let me worry about that. It's time for Bunnie to dispense some good ol' fashioned down-home reason to a few critters who need to hear it."

_An' if that don't work,_ she added privately,_ it's time for a few critters to get bopped on the head until this here crisis is over._

* * *

Tails heard Bunnie's feet hit the dirt before he heard her voice. He felt them too, as vibrations against his cheek. He pressed his palms against the floor to lever himself upright, but whoever was sitting on him was a burden he could well do without. Tails thought the guy must have been knocked unconscious in the scuffle that had broken out before Rotor and then Bunnie arrived. Whatever. It didn't really matter _how_ he'd come to be unconscious, just that he was, and that he was a lot bigger than Tails. It was difficult to even breathe with that much weight on him.

"Listen up, y'all," Bunnie called. "You ain't doin' nobody no favours actin' like a bunch of ants tossed outta the farm. Have y'all taken leave of your senses? We gots to pull together at a time like this, not apart, an' we _especially_ need to watch out for each other instead of backbitin' an' in-fightin'. Won't do a single body any good at all if'n we do Robotnik's job for him."

A susurrus of murmuring went up. Some of it sounded embarrassed. Some of it was still panicky. All of it was laced with fear.

"We're gonna die," tried a voice on the other side of the chamber.

"We ain't gonna die," Bunnie snapped, startling them all. "Ain't _nobody_ here gonna die today. You know why? Because we're survivors. We been doin' it for so long, it's second nature to us. We're good at it. Ro_butt_nik may have taken our huts an' our vegetable patches, but he ain't took Knothole yet. Know why? Because _we're _Knothole – us guys upstairs an' you guys down here – an' he ain't gettin' a single one of y'all so long as there's breath left in my body. Just because you guys don't go on missions to Robotropolis don't mean you ain't Freedom Fighters in your own way. You fight back just by surviving', an' deprivin' Robuttnik of what he wants. He can't win so long as even one Mobian's still standin' on the two feet they was born with. Now y'all just quit tryin' to do that dictator's job for him an' act more like the Freedom Fighters you are, y'hear? Let's have a lil' more responsibility taken where it's needed, 'kay?"

The susurrus depleted into shamefaced silence.

Tails shifted his arms and legs. "Aunt Bunnie?"

"Tails?" Bunnie's volume changed to his ears as she swung her head around looking for him. "Where you at, sweetie-pie?"

"Down here." Instantly many hands helped uncover him. One set even brushed him down and readjusted the bandage over his eyes. Hard to think that only minutes ago they'd been ready to trample him to get to the exits. "Aunt Bunnie?"

"Right here, sweetheart." Bunnie's voice came from much closer now. A hand rested lightly on Tails's shoulder. He reached up to lay his own hand atop it. "Rosie?" Bunnie called without letting go of him. "Could you go upstairs for a spell?"

"Right away, dear," Rosie said. Her footfalls as she climbed the ladder were much lighter than Bunnie's had been.

Bunnie was a solid and reassuring presence. "Aunt Bunnie," Tails hissed," some kids went poking around in the back of the chamber and found some kind of underground waterway. One of them fell in."

"They did, huh?" Bunnie's tone didn't stop being cheerful, but her grip increased slightly. "Well now, I'll just have to see about checkin' that out. Much obliged for the update, sugar. When did it happen? An' where?" Her tone was even but urgent. Tails could understand why. In the time it had taken to calm everyone down and get this news to someone who could _do_ something about it, the kid may have already drowned.

"Please, Miss Bunnie," said a sniffly contralto Tails recognised as the missing child's sibling – the one who had run back to them yelling for help. The voice was too high and strangled with fright to tell whether it was female or that of a very young male. "I can take you there. Please, please hurry. He was holding onto this big rock in the middle, but I don't know how long he can –"

"Say no more, darlin'." Bunnie had obviously turned her face away. Her voice was muffled slightly, though her grip on Tails didn't slacken. "All right, y'all. Who here's ready to act like Freedom Fighters instead of scared lil' critters with only a mite more sense than bees in a shook-up hive?"

As rousing speeches went, it was lacklustre. A chorus of uninspiring noises greeted it, but they were enough for Bunnie.

"Righty tighty, then. I'm countin' on y'all. So is Tails here. He's in charge while I go check out this here predicament. I'll be back in a jiff'. 'Til then, you just mind him as you would me."

"That kid?" someone cried. "That _blind _kid? Are you serious?"

Tails bristled, but didn't have time to defend himself.

"Tails here done proved himself time an' again in Robotropolis. He got himself a good ol' head on good young shoulders. Now I ain't got time to argue with y'all about every lil' itty bitty thing, unless you want a drowned youngster on your consciences."

This time her words met with total silence.

"Didn't think so." Somehow Bunnie managed to sound simultaneously cheerful and grim. She patted Tails's shoulder. "I'm countin' on you, sugar-fox."

His chest swelled with pride. "I won't let you down, Aunt Bunnie."

"Never have before. Now then, young man," she said, addressing the sniffling child. "Lead on to wherever the hip-hop you an' your brother done wandered off to."

* * *

_Not good. Not good at all_.

Bunnie regarded the hole in the floor dubiously. Through it she could hear the rush of water, much as she could when standing on the bridge at night without looking over the side. It sounded far too fast-flowing for her liking. The dirt was spiderwebbed with cracks and obviously too thin to stand on without widening the hole. If a child's weight was enough, her robotic parts were sure to do the trick. Yet without getting closer she couldn't properly assess the situation.

There was nothing else for it. She was loathe to use the extending components of her legs, since they were apt to go wrong at the worst moment and Rotor wasn't around to fix them right now, but she little other choice. Through the hole also came the sound of coughing and the thin, terrified whimpers of a child. Bunnie's heart wrenched and her resolve hardened.

"Stand back, sugar," she told the little vole who'd led her through the tiny gap in the back of the lower chamber. "Don't want no more accidents today, do we?"

"No, Miss Bunnie."

"Less of the 'Miss', sugar, you're makin' me feel mighty old." Never mind that she felt like she'd aged ten years in the last three hours. "Landsakes, I just realised I don't know your name!"

"It's Rushkin, Mi- uh, Bunnie."

"Right now, Rushkin, you just sit tight an' wait there while I rescue your brother. What's his name?"

"Aldo. His name's Aldo."

This cave was a place nobody but a child could have found in the middle of a crisis. It sat at the end of a long, narrow passageway she'd had to commando-crawl through while Rushkin only had to hunch. The vole-boy and his older brother had been exploring, and happened upon the spot by accident. According to him, his brother had crawled through and called him a coward until he did the same. Like younger siblings all over the world, even though it meant dirtying his overalls and getting their mother mad, Rushkin had taken up the challenge, only to find himself rushing back the way they'd come when Aldo suddenly disappeared through the floor in the cave beyond.

Rushkin hiccupped quietly as Bunnie knelt down, gripped the low ceiling with her metal arm to steady herself and telescoped both the arm and her legs out to the hole. Her flesh arm remained free to manoeuvre, though she mainly used it to keep her balance like a walker on a high wire as her torso swayed from side to side in the middle of the cave.

"Aldo?" she called. "You down there, sugar?"

A pathetic voice called back, "I-I'm here. B-But I can't h-hold on m-much longer. I'm so c-cold."

"Right you are, sugar. Now don't you worry none. Bunnie's here now, an' she's gonna get you outta there."

How, she wasn't sure yet. Her brain felt fogged with one thing and another – Sally, Robotnik, Knothole, Knuckles, the roboticised echidnas – so badly that she had to give herself a stern talking to and tell herself to concentrate on what she was doing and forget everything else.

_There'll be time enough to worry about other stuff later. For now, you just focus on that poor lil' boy, Bunnie Rabbot, an' what his momma will say if'n your mouth overloads your butt an' you don't bring him home safe an' sound like you promised._

She took a breath and slowly, oh so slowly, lowered her head and upper torso through the hole to see what was what.

The river really was just that – a swollen mass of water rushing at a pace that had pinned Aldo against one of several boulders at its centre. His little pink hands were nearly white with cold and the death-grip he maintained on the uneven surface. His fur was so slicked down Bunnie could make out every bump and dip in his skull. He trembled, raising large dark eyes made dull with desperation and the beginnings of hypothermia. The air was much, much colder down here, especially after the stifling warmth of the crowded lower chamber. Bunnie didn't like to think how cold the water must be.

"H-help," Aldo said weakly. "P-please help me …"

"Hang tight, sugar. I'll get you outta there. Just don't let go."

Bunnie cast about. Running parallel on either side of the river were two smooth banks of rock and hard-packed dirt. It was amazing to find a place like this below the forest floor – especially below one of their shelters. Nobody had known it was here. She briefly wondered where it led, then dismissed the thought as beside the point. She could use the sides if she could get herself onto them. From there she'd be in a much stronger position to rescue Aldo.

Gingerly, she drew back to Rushkin and found a fresh handhold for her other arm on the ceiling. It was jagged and full of available spots she could get a good grip of – especially when her metal hand could dig in to make fresh ones. She retracted her legs in to her body and carefully hand-walked across the ceiling until she was positioned above the hole more. There, she let go with her flesh arm and lowered herself through. It put enormous strain on her roboticised arm and shoulder. The join where metal met muscle screamed, but she gritted her teeth and ignored the discomfort quickly turning to pain. The trickiest part of her plan was still to come. It was hard enough keeping just herself aloft this way. Now she had to somehow lift her own body and Aldo's at the same time without plunging them both into the river.

"Aldo, sugar?"

It took a moment for him to answer. "Y-yes," he said blearily.

Delayed reflexes and wooziness – not good signs. Not good at _all_. How long had he been in the water now? Too long, was the most obvious answer.

Bunnie looked up to reassure herself of her grip on the ceiling. It suddenly seemed a whole lot further away. "Aldo, can you get ahold of my legs?"

"I … I don't think so. I can't feel my … anything. I'm n-not even sure how I'm h-holding onto this rock …"

"Don't you never mind none, sugar. Can you at least raise your right arm when I tell you?"

"I th-think so …" He didn't sound certain.

"Try your hardest, sugar, that's all I can ask." Bunnie couldn't help thinking her attempts at reassurance were paltry, but the best she could offer under the circumstances. She extended her arm to its fullest, stretched out her normal one and yelled, "Now!"

Aldo let go of the rock just as she swung herself towards him. Her hand closed around his wrist and she yanked. The muscles in her neck and both shoulders tensed. Her feet pistoned empty air. A small wet body clung to her and she heaved it up to nestle against her side. Bunnie instantly withdrew her robotic arm and they ascended to the cave where Rushkin waited.

"Aldo!" he shouted. "Aldo!"

Bunnie came to the final flaw in her hastily (and maybe very badly) constructed plan: how to get herself and Aldo back to firmer ground with only one arm. No way could the kid hold onto her unaided. He was shaking so much, it was all she could do to hang onto him so he didn't plop back into the river. Yet she had used two arms to get over here. How was she going to get them both back using only one?

Half a second later she got her answer.

She wasn't.

The handhold she'd made for herself began to crumble. She felt the rock giving way and made a split-second decision. There was no more time to think, just act. Swinging wildly, she used the forward momentum of her own body to throw Aldo away from the danger area. It risked broken bones, but she just had to hope he didn't tense up too hard. A slack body broke less easily than a rigid one.

"Rushkin, head's up!"

"I got him!" It was a ridiculous statement. Rushkin was only two thirds Aldo's size. His brother landed on him and promptly emptied him of air. They both thumped against the far wall. "Oof!"

Bunnie was already swinging backwards. Her handhold came away in a tumble of scree. She pitched through the hole, banging against the side so that it, too, crumbled and large chunks of dirt and rock fell in alongside her. Her spine arched and her head spun from the blow, but it was the shock of cold when she hit the water that consumed her. It was more than freezing. Water had no right being that cold without turning to ice. It didn't just close, it slammed shut over her head and she instantly forgot which way was up and which was down.

Air! She needed air!

She broke the surface out of pure luck and sucked in a lungful.

"Bunnie!" shouted a voice that didn't belong to either Aldo or Rushkin.

Too late. Metal limbs weren't meant for swimming, especially at such low temperatures. Bunnie went under again, her roboticised arm and legs weighing her down. She had time to notice and, ridiculously, marvel at the thin stream of bubbles passing her face, like she was trapped in a giant glass of soda pop. Then the current took hold and dragged her down and away into the dark.

* * *

Knuckles jerked his head up. Alarm roiled in his gut. He jumped to his feet, suddenly hyperaware of every sound, every movement. He stood poised in a ready position, all the weight balanced on the balls of his feet so he could meet any attack without losing his footing.

Nothing attacked. Nothing even moved. The chamber was peaceful around him.

Nevertheless he felt edgy. Something was wrong. Something was _very_ wrong. He just didn't know what – or even what it _could_ be. Unease was like a band of steel around his chest, making it hard to breathe. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the feeling, but it wouldn't go. If anything, it grew stronger.

The Emerald pulsed. He stared at it.

"Do you know what's wrong?"

Crackles only he could see played across its surface, but it gave no answer.

Knuckles shook his head again. His skin crawled. It was a truly unpleasant feeling. "Maybe I should patrol outside, make sure things are secure on the rest of the island," he said, only half to himself. He had been out of sorts ever since he got home. He shouldn't be surprised that even now he was acting unlike himself, feeling things he shouldn't feel and confusing himself. It was unrealistic to blame Bunnie for his sudden bad feeling this time, but the old resentment gnawed constantly at the back of his mind. Likewise that uncharacteristic guilt over feeling it.

Yes, a patrol was a good idea. Fresh air and something purposeful to do would clear his head.

The chamber glowed balefully behind him as he left.

* * *

_To Be Continued …_

* * *

.


End file.
